29.566, Diss: Turkish; Cognitive Science; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Syntax; Psycholinguistics: Gözde Mercan: ''Structural Priming in Turkish Genitive-Possessive Constructions''

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-566. Fri Feb 02 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.566, Diss: Turkish; Cognitive Science; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Syntax; Psycholinguistics: Gözde Mercan: ''Structural Priming in Turkish Genitive-Possessive Constructions''

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Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:08:31
From: Gözde Bahadır [gozdebahadir at gmail.com]
Subject: Structural Priming in Turkish Genitive-Possessive Constructions

 
Institution: Middle East Technical University 
Program: Cognitive Science 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2012 

Author: Gözde (Bahadır) Mercan

Dissertation Title: Structural Priming in Turkish Genitive-Possessive
Constructions 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     Linguistic Theories
                     Morphology
                     Psycholinguistics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): Turkish (tur)


Dissertation Director(s):
Annette Hohenberger
Deniz Zeyrek Bozşahin

Dissertation Abstract:

This study addresses the question of the mental representation and processing
of language by investigating “structural priming” in Turkish
Genitive-Possessive (GEN-POSS) constructions. Structural priming is the
facilitating effect of having already experienced a structural form on its
subsequent processing. We investigate this phenomenon on a construction pair
in Turkish, which shares the same external GEN-POSS morpho-syntactic template
despite having distinct grammatical catego-ries. The structures under scrutiny
are possessive noun phrases (e.g. “Korsan, [prenses-in(GEN)
öykü-sün(POSS.3SG)]-ü hatırladı.” which means: The pirate remembered [the
princess’s story].) and embedded noun clauses with nominalized verbs as
predicates (e.g. “Korsan, [prenses-in(GEN) gül-düğ(VN)-ün(POSS.3SG)]-ü
hatırladı.” which means: The pirate remembered [that the princess (had)
laughed/was laughing].)

The results of the study which consists of a series of production and
comprehension experiments with various methodologies (written sentence
completion, self-paced reading and eye-tracking) indicate that structural
priming might access the morpho-syntactic level of representation in Turkish.
Priming seems sensitive to the distinction between the phrasal vs. clausal
nature of structures. During the processing of GEN-POSS constructions, the
grammatical information regarding the constituents is accessed. Complex forms
are further decomposed if processing resources are avail-able. Overall,
language production and comprehension seem to operate on the same structural
representations but through different mechanisms. In addition, the study also
contributes to the understanding of structural priming as a methodological
paradigm and to the establishment of a bridge between the processing and
theoretical linguistic analysis of Turkish nominalized verbs. To conclude,
this study pioneers in exploring structural priming in Turkish and opens way
to future research in this line. 

Keywords: structural priming, Turkish, genitive-possessive constructions, noun
clauses, nominalization




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