The processing of WH-interrogatives in Brazilian Portuguese: eyetracking and ERP evidences

Abstract: This article deals with the processing of subject and object WH-sentences of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Specifically, it investigates the subject/object asymmetry in this type of sentence, following previous results using self-paced reading technique (OLIVEIRA; MAIA, 2010; OLIVEIRA, 2013). Eyetracking and electroencephalography (EEG) techniques were used as diagnostic tools for real-time linguistic processing. The goal was to find evidence of the modus operandi of the parser during the processing of subject and object syntactic functions in Brazilian Portuguese WH-sentences and verify if there are discrepancies between the techniques. The results allow discerning the levels of representational, algorithmic and implementation analysis, in the direction of the classical proposal of Marr (1982).

摘要：本文聚焦巴西葡萄牙语（Brazilian Portuguese，下文简称BP）的主语型与宾语型wh-疑问句（WH-sentences）加工研究。具体而言，本文基于此前采用自定步速阅读法（self-paced reading）所获的研究成果（OLIVEIRA; MAIA, 2010; OLIVEIRA, 2013），针对此类疑问句中的主语-宾语不对称现象展开考察。本研究采用眼动追踪技术（eyetracking）与脑电图技术（electroencephalography，简称EEG）作为实时语言加工的诊断工具。本研究的目标是探寻巴西葡萄牙语wh-疑问句加工过程中，句法分析器（parser）处理主语与宾语句法功能时的运作机制证据，并验证不同技术手段间是否存在实验结果差异。本研究结果可参照马尔（Marr, 1982）的经典理论框架，厘清语言加工的表征分析、算法分析与实现分析三个层级。