Electrophysiological evidence for the interaction of prosody and thematic fit during sentence comprehension

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the interaction of prosody and thematic fit/plausibility information during the processing of sentences containing temporary early closure (correct) or late closure (incorrect) syntactic ambiguities using event-related potentials (ERPs). Early closure sentences with congruent and incongruent prosody were presented where the temporarily ambiguous NP was either a plausible or an implausible continuation for the subordinate verb (e.g. “While the band played the song/beer pleased all the customers.”). N400 and P600 components were examined at critical points in each condition. The CPS was examined in sentences with congruent prosody. Prosodic and thematic fit cues interacted immediately (N400–P600) at the implausible NP (beer), when it was paired with incongruent prosody. Incongruent prosody paired with a plausible NP (song) resulted in garden-path effects (N400–P600) at the critical verb (pleased). These findings provide strong evidence that prosodic and thematic fit/plausibility cues interact to aid the parser in syntactic structure building.

KEYWORDS:

• Event-related potentials (ERPs)
• sentence processing
• prosody
• thematic fit

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Shannon M. Sheppard http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4053-8617

Notes

1. We also conducted analyses with a traditional 100ms pre-stimulus baseline and the results did not fundamentally differ from the effects reported here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) [grant number HD25889], and by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) [grant number R01 DC009272], [grant number R01 DC000494], and [grant number T32 DC007361].