Authors:	Schumacher, Petra
Title:	When combinatorial processing results in reconceptualization : toward a new approach of compositionality
Online publication date:	6-Oct-2022
Year of first publication:	2013
Language:	english
Abstract:	Propositional content is often incomplete but comprehenders appear to adjust meaning and add unarticulated meaning constituents effortlessly. This happens at the propositional level (The baby drank the bottle) but also at the phrasal level (the wooden turtle). In two ERP experiments, combinatorial processing was investigated in container/content alternations and adjective-noun combination transforming an animate entity into a physical object. Experiment 1 revealed that container-for-content alternations (The baby drank the bottle) engendered a Late Positivity on the critical expression and on the subsequent segment, while content-for-container alternations (Chris put the beer on the table) did not exert extra costs. In Experiment 2, adjective-noun combinations (the wooden turtle) also evoked a Late Positivity on the critical noun. First, the Late Positivities are taken to reflect discourse updating demands resulting from reference shift from the original denotation to the contextually appropriate interpretation (e.g., the reconceptualization form animal to physical object). This shift is supported by the linguistic unavailability of the original meaning, exemplified by copredication tests. Second, the data reveal that meaning alternations differ qualitatively. Some alternations involve (cost-free) meaning selection, while others engender processing demands associated with reconceptualization. This dissociation thus calls for a new typology of metonymic shifts that centers around the status of the involved discourse referents.
DDC:	400 Sprache 400 Language
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 05 Philosophie und Philologie
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7874
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License:	CC BY
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Journal:	Frontiers in psychology 4
Pages or article number:	Art. 677
Publisher:	Frontiers Research Foundation
Publisher place:	Lausanne
Issue date:	2013
ISSN:	1664-1078
Publisher URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00677
Publisher DOI:	10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00677
Appears in collections:	DFG-OA-Publizieren (2012 - 2017)