SUBJECT-PREDICATE AGREEMENT IN HEBREW - INTERRELATIONS WITH SEMANTIC PROCESSES

The processing of subject-predicate agreement in Hebrew was examined i n two experiments in which eye movements were recorded. These experime nts examined the interrelation between on-line semantic processes and the syntactic analysis of agreement. In Experiment 1, the congruity of subject and predicate was manipulated, by violating agreement in gend er, number or both. Fixation time on the predicate was longer when the subject and predicate were incongruent only in cases where the predic ate immediately followed the subject, but not in cases where a five-wo rd modifier phrase was embedded between the subject and the predicate. Assuming that the appearance of such a phrase caused a time delay in which semantic processes took place, these results may indicate the su sceptibility of the syntactic analysis of agreement to on-line non-syn tactic processes. This possibility was further supported in Experiment 2, in which subject-predicate order was manipulated. Comparable fixat ion times on the subject were found regardless of whether it preceded or followed the predicate. However, fixation times for the predicate w ere longer when it preceded than when it followed the subject. Since t he second of the two elements of the agreement carries redundant seman tic information, and since the semantic meaning of the inflectinoal mo rphemes is conceptually connected to the subject rather than the predi cate, the observed asymmetry in processing time for the subject and th e predicate may indicate an influence of conceptual factors on the pro cessing of the agreement.