Abstract:
Several experiments in Psycholinguistics found evidences of Iterative Coercion, an effect related to the reanalysis of punctual events used in durative contexts triggering an iterative meaning. We argue that this effect is not related to aspectual features, and that event-duration semantics is accessed during Sentence Processing. We ran a self-paced reading experiment in Brazilian Portuguese whose sentences contain events with an average duration of a few minutes. These sentences were inserted in durative contexts that became the experiment's conditions following a Latin Square design: control condition (minutes), subtractive (seconds), iterative (hours) and habitual (days). Higher RTs were measured at the critical segments of all experimental conditions, except for the habitual context. The results corroborated our hypothesis while defying the psychological reality of habitual coercion. To better observe the habitual coercion condition, we now present a reanalysis of Sampaio et al. (2014)SAMPAIO, Thiago; FRANÇA, Aniela; MAIA, Marcus. Does Time Perception Influence Language Processing? Self-Paced Reading Evidence of Aspectual Coercion in Durative Events. In: CHRUSZCZEWSKI, Piotr (Org.). Languages in Contact: Ways to Protolanguage 3. Wroclaw: Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu & Polska Akademia Nauk, 2014. p. 139-156. data. The present analysis confirms the results of our tests.
Keywords:
Sentence processing; Semantics of time; Event duration; Time perception; Aspectual coercion
