Sentence formulation is easier when thematic and syntactic prominence align: evidence from psych verbs

We use the visual world eye-tracking paradigm to investigate how the mapping from thematic event structures to grammatical structures, known as sentence formulation, unfolds during real time sentence production. Experiment 1 contrasted production of SubjExp (<i>“Leslie_EXP loves Ann_STIM”</i>) versus ObjExp <i>(“Leslie_STIM scares Ann_EXP”)</i> sentences. Experiment 2 investigated passivized SubjExp <i>(“Leslie_STIM was loved by Ann_EXP”)</i> and passivized ObjExp sentences <i>(“Leslie_EXP was scared by Ann_STIM.”)</i>. In both studies, we found that speakers were faster to begin speaking and to preferentially fixate the subject when they were able to assign the thematically prominent Experiencer role to the subject of the sentence. We conclude that sentence formulation is easier when speakers can make use of a tight, systematic correspondence between event structures and linguistic structures. We discuss the implications of our work for the relationship between language and thought and for the formal accounts of SubjExp and ObjExp verbs.