Testing two-step models of negative quantification using a novel machine learning analysis of EEG.

The sentences " of the students passed the exam" and " of the students failed the exam" describe the same set of situations, and yet the former results in shorter reaction times in verification tasks. The two-step model explains this result by postulating that negative quantifiers contain hidden negation, which involves an extra processing stage. To test this theory, we applied a novel EEG analysis technique focused on detecting cognitive stages (HsMM-MVPA) to data from a picture-sentence verification task.

Context and Complexity in Incremental Sentence Interpretation: An ERP Study on Temporal Quantification.

The present event-related potential (ERP) study used picture-sentence verification to investigate the neurolinguistic correlates of the online processing of compositional-semantic information. To this end, we examined context effects on sentences involving temporal adverbial quantification likeJana war jeden Morgen schwimmen an den Arbeitstagen ("Jana went for a swim every morning during the working week"). We tested whether the conceptual complexity associated with quantifying over time intervals leads to delayed predictions regarding the upcoming words in a sentence.

Gricean Expectations in Online Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study on the Processing of Scalar Inferences.

There is substantial support for the general idea that a formalization of comprehenders' expectations about the likely next word in a sentence helps explaining data related to online sentence processing. While much research has focused on syntactic, semantic, and discourse expectations, the present event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigates neurolinguistic correlates of pragmatic expectations, which arise when comprehenders expect a sentence to conform to Gricean Maxims of Conversation. For predicting brain responses associated with pragmatic processing, we introduce a formal model of such Gricean pragmatic expectations, using an idealized incremental interpreter.

Incremental generation of answers during the comprehension of questions with quantifiers.

The paper presents a study on the online interpretation of quantified questions involving complex domain restriction, for instance, are all triangles blue that are in the circle. Two probe reaction time (RT) task experiments were conducted to study the incremental nature of answer generation while manipulating visual contexts and response hand overlap between tasks. We manipulated the contexts in such a way that the incremental answer to the question changed from 'yes' to 'no' or remained the same before and after encountering the extraposed relative clause.

Prosodic phrasing in the presence of unambiguous verb information--ERP evidence from German.

In spoken language, prosodic boundaries contribute to the way we understand sentences on-line. The present experiment used ERPs to investigate whether the informativity of prosodic boundaries depends on the availability of other linguistic cues. To this end, we examined the interplay between verb information, case and prosody in German verb-second structures.