Verbs in spoken sentence processing: Unraveling the activation pattern of the matrix verb

The verb is the core of a sentence: it expresses the event or activity that the sentence describes, it provides the number of possible persons or objects involved in the event, and the links between these constituents and the verb itself. Thus, verbs provide a bridgework for nearly all aspects of sentential processing. While much research has demonstrated that verb information (such as argument structure) plays a role in ongoing processing, there remains a surprising paucity of evidence detailing the precise nature of how and when such information is employed. This dissertation aims to fill part of this void, with the specific goal of determining the lifetime of the meaning of the verb during the unfolding sentence. In a series of Cross-Modal Lexical Priming experiments, sentences consisting of a main clause followed by an embedded clause were presented aurally to participants. Lexical decisions to visual probes related to the matrix verb were found to be faster than decisions to unrelated (but matched) control probes at different positions throughout the main clause, but not when presented in the second clause. This suggests a pattern of continued activation of the meaning of the verb throughout the main clause, dissipating only upon encountering the conjunction, signaling a new clause. Effects were replicated using different sentence constructions and different verb types.