Processing argument structure complexity in Basque-Spanish bilinguals

Previous research on argument structure (AS) has shown that verb processing costs scale with the number of arguments and as a result of non-canonical thematic mapping. The Basque language has unique AS: Basque unergatives and transitives select transitive auxiliary and ergative subject case markings, while unaccusatives are syntactically less complex. We studied the contribution of these syntactic factors in seventy-one, simultaneous Basque-Spanish bilinguals, measuring their performance on unergative, unaccusatives, and transitive verbs in a lexical decision and a sentence production task. We observed no differences between verb groups in the lexical decision task. In the production task, Basque unergatives elicited more ungrammatical sentences, while Spanish unaccusatives, in line with previous findings, elicited longer speech onset times. Our results indicate that AS processing can differ across languages, calling for further cross-linguistic investigation.过往有关论元结构（Argument Structure，AS）的研究表明，动词加工代价随论元数量的增加而升高，同时也会受非规范主题映射的影响而变化。巴斯克语具备独特的论元结构：其非作格动词（unergative verb）与及物动词需选用及物助动词及作格主语格标记，而非宾格动词（unaccusative verb）的句法复杂度相对更低。我们招募了71名同时性巴斯克语-西班牙语双语者，探究上述句法因素的作用，并通过词汇判断任务（lexical decision task）与句子生成任务（sentence production task），测试其对非作格、非宾格及及物动词的加工表现。在词汇判断任务中，不同动词类型组间未观测到显著差异。在句子生成任务中，巴斯克语非作格动词会引发更多不合语法的句子；而西班牙语非宾格动词则契合既往研究结论，会导致更长的语音起始时间（speech onset time）。本研究结果表明，论元结构加工过程存在语言间差异，亟需开展进一步的跨语言研究。