Subjecthood and linear order in linguistic encoding: Evidence from the real-time production of wh-questions in English and Mandarin Chinese

• Published in: Journal of memory and language Vol. 105; pp. 60 - 75
• Main Authors: Do, Monica L., Kaiser, Elsi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.04.2019
• Subjects: Language production; Linguistic encoding; Mandarin Chinese; Visual-world eye-tracking; wh-Questions; Word order; Visual-world eye-tracking; Language production; Word order; Mandarin Chinese; Linguistic encoding; wh-Questions
• ISSN: 0749-596X; 1096-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2018.11.001

•First cross-linguistic, real-time investigation of wh-questions during production.•The subject is linguistically encoded first, even when it is not linearly initial.•Assignment of grammatical role and linear order is tightly linked temporally. We use visual world eye-tracking to provide a first look into the real-time production of an under-researched but communicatively crucial construction – wh-questions. We investigate whether the transition from abstract message to highly-structured utterances (linguistic encoding) is driven by linear order (positional processing) or subjecthood assignment (functional processing). Experiment 1 decouples positional and functional processes by comparing production of English declaratives versus object wh-questions (‘Which nurses did the maids tickle?’). Experiment 2 compares the production of declaratives versus object wh-questions in Mandarin Chinese to investigate potential information-focus effects on linguistic encoding and tests whether Experiment 1’s findings could be due to focus. Experiment 1 found that even though the articulation of a sentence is necessarily linear, speakers do not necessarily encode sentences in accordance with the linear order in which the words are uttered. Experiment 2 suggests that information-focus does not guide speakers' eye-movements during linguistic encoding.