VERB ARGUMENT STRUCTURE IN PARSING AND INTERPRETATION - EVIDENCE FROMWH-QUESTIONS

The hypothesis that readers use verb argument structure information to generate and evaluate likely syntactic alternatives and assign provis ional interpretations was evaluated using wh-questions, such as Which client did the salesman, visit while in the city? Using a word by word , self-paced reading task with a ''makes sense'' judgment, wt manipula ted the plausibility of the wh-phrase with respect to the semantic rol e that it would play if it were the direct object. We also manipulated the preferred argument structure of the verb, using (1) transitive ve rbs that typically occur with only a direct object; (2) objective cont rol verbs that typically are used with both a direct object and an inf initive complement: and (3) dative verbs that are typically used with both a direct object and an indirect object. The results showed clear and immediate effects of argument structure. Sentences with implausibl e wh-phrases were judged to stop making, sense at the verb for simple transitive verbs. However, sentences with object control verbs and dat ive: verbs were judged to make sense as long as the wh-phrase could be plausibly interpreted as one of the verb's arguments. Thus, the bias to initially interpret a wh-phrase as the direct object of a verb was blocked when the filler was implausible in the direct object role if t he verb provided another argument position. In addition, interpretatio n of the wh-phrase began at the verb, prior to the gap, even when the syntactic position of the gap was ambiguous. The results are taken as support for constraint-based lexicalist models of processing. (C) 1995 Academy Press, Inc.