The Fate of the Unattended Revisited: Can Irrelevant Speech Prime the Non-dominant Interpretation of Homophones?

Whether the post-categorical, semantic properties of task-irrelevant speech are processed has been a source of debate between two central accounts. The first, a structural account, proposes that the semantic content of irrelevant speech is filtered out early on, and thus remains unprocessed. The second account proposes that the semantic content of speech is, in fact, processed and can influence later behavior. The present research offers a resolution between these two prominent accounts by examining whether semantic processing of task-irrelevant speech occurs despite explicit instructions to ignore it. During a visual-verbal serial recall paradigm, participants were auditorily presented with non-dominant homophones plus their close associates, or close associates without the homophone itself and asked to ignore this irrelevant speech containing these semantic primes. In a subsequent “unrelated” phase, we assessed whether the spelling of homophones was influenced by the irrelevant speech that had occurred earlier in the serial recall phase. We found evidence of semantic priming in conditions wherein the homophone was present, as well as conditions wherein only associates of the homophone were present. Regardless of whether they were presented, homophones were more likely to be spelt in accordance with their non-dominant meaning, and most participants did not report awareness of this fact. We suggest that semantic processing of irrelevant speech occurs even when there is an explicit direction to ignore it and does not result in any material disruptive effect on serial recall performance

Space and events : spatial PPs and motion VPs

PhD ThesisThis thesis studies the internal syntax and semantics of spatial PPs, i.e. phrases headed by words such as (in English) in, on, at, above, in front of, from, out of, through, around, etc. as well as their role and contribution in motion events when combined with different motion verbs. I argue that these adpositions as used in spatial relationships are Relators. They relate entities, positions or events to specific entities or positions. For example, in/on/at relate a Figure to specific Spaces with reference to a Ground. Thus I refer to them as Place Relators. As to the elements to/from/through, I refer to them as Path Relators. They relate the Figure to specific points in a path domain. Based on the way I view these elements, the minimum P projection I propose is [RelPATHP [RelPLACEP]]. Furthermore, adapting ideas of Svenonius (2010), I decompose RelPLACEP into [RelPLACEP [AxPartP [KP]]]. The scope of the materials is extended to analyse equivalent elements in Kurdish and Arabic for which no full descriptions are available. The P projection proposed provides a better understanding of spatial adpositions in these languages. On the one hand, it helps distinguish the elements that belong to the P category in e.g. Arabic, which has true and semi adpositions. On the other hand, Kurdish data show that there is more to the P projection proposed through suggesting another functional head, namely PLACE. Furthermore, I investigate the role of spatial PPs in motion events when combined with different motion verbs. Following Ramchand’s (2008) first-phase syntax of verbs and based on the availability of a Res feature, I divide motion verbs into two classes: [Proc] and [Proc, Res] verbs. The occurrence of different spatial PPs with these two types of motion verbs is closely examined and discussed in the second half of the thesis. It is shown that there are two types of events expressed by such combinations: Process and (resultative) Transition. Process events can be expressed by [Proc] Vs and different spatial PPs. The PP in such an event structure mostly defines the location of the activity. Transition events can be expressed lexically by [Proc, Res] Vs in general. The spatial PP in such lexical Transition events does not contribute much to the event structure either, except for PPs headed by Ps such as in/on/behind/to/into, which can represent the culmination (upper bound) of the BECOME event involved in Transition events. Further I show that resultative Transition events can also be expressed syntactically by [Proc] Vs combined with specific spatial PPs that denote an end point (a culmination), such as English into/onto-phrases. In Kurdish and Arabic, the presence of a bounded GoalRelP headed by an adposition meaning ‘to’ and a lexicalised AxPart is crucial to give rise to a resultative Transition event with a [Proc] V. In such cases, since the PPs can suggest a culmination in the event structure, the combination suggests a Transition event that involves a BBECOME event. Syntactically I present this BECOME event as a null Res element.The Higher Committee for Education Development (HCED), Iraq