Research

Interindividual variation at the syntax-pragmatics-interface - information hidden in "noisy" data within the syntax-pragmatics interface

This project is part of the Konstanz Research Initiative Meaningful Silence and Noise (MeaNs), funded by the Ausschuss für Forschungsfragen (AFF). I co-lead this project together with T. Marinis.

Our project deals with the high amount of variation found among participants in experiments on the processing of pragmatics and its interfaces. This leads to 'noisy' data which are challenging to analyze and interpret. We are guided by the hypothesis that far from being random `'noise', this variability reflects systematic differences in reliance on pragmatic and structural cues in different speaker populations, linked to underlying differences in cognitive styles.

In this project, we

  • ­ identify and establish useful psychological assessment tools to monitor the interaction of language processing with other parts of cognition. 
  •  establish a set of stimuli known to elicit different linguistic illusions and other types of processing challenges, ranging from purely syntactic to purely pragmatic, and including a wide array of phenomena at the interfaces
  •  monitor the processing of these stimuli in visual and auditive presentation modes for neurotypical adults

The goals are to (a) further elucidate interindividual differences in processing a wide variety of phenomena (b) identify promising links to interindividual variation in non-linguistic psychological factors in neurotypical adults (c) identify useful linguistic and psychological tools to monitor interindividual variation (d) establish a baseline to inform follow-up research on language processing and usage across the speaker population, including autistic adults and children.

Disentangling semantic and pragmatic processing in on-line sentence comprehension using event-related potential and time-frequency analyses: Modal particles and their counterparts 

In this YSF-funded project, we use time-frequency and ERP analysis to identify processing correlates for different aspects of discourse particle processing. In collaboration with Laura Reimer, Mariya Kharaman and Carsten Eulitz.

The role of German particles in questions

Question-sensitive discourse particles (QDiPs) like German denn modify the illocutionary force of an interrogative utterance. Their licensing is subject to interacting syntactic, semantic and pragmatic constraints.

In this project, I work on the following:

  • an in-depth characterization of the processing correlates of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic licensing constraints for QDiPs
  • the time course and ERP correlates of licensing violations for QDiPs and NPIs
  • distinguishing between effects of syntactic-semantic-pragmatic licensing, linguistic illusions, and memory effects
  • add to the distinction between semantic and pragmatic licensing processes

The overarching research goal is to arrive at a more general understanding of long-distance licensing processes at the interface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

See Czypionka et al. 2021, Czypionka et al. 2022

Structural and lexical case marking
in sentence comprehension

  • in-depth characterization of differences between the processing of nominative-accusative and nominative-dative verbs, interplay with argument animacy, word order and verb separability 
  • assess if case marking effects in sentence comprehension reflect the processing of syntactic, semantic or lexical differences between both verb types
  •  case marking effects with nonseparable verbs and separable particle verbs (see also FOCUS/FNP project at the University of Wroclaw) 
  • the time course of case attraction in online processing

See Czypionka 2014, Czypionka & Eulitz 2018, Czypionka et al. 2018, Czypionka et al. 2019

Animacy

  • the role of argument animacy in sentence comprehension
  •  its interactions with word order, verbal case marking and verbal semantic selection criteria 
  • early and late effects of argument animacy in sentence comprehension, the timecourse of single word recognition and sentence structure building processes
  • the role of constituent animacy in compound recognition 

See Czypionka 2014, Czypionka & Eulitz 2018

German-Greek toolkit for Theory of Mind and Language in Autism (MiLA)

In this project, we develop a toolkit to assess Theory-of-Mind abilities in autistic speakers, especially children. The toolkit is available in Greek and German, and in a verbal and low-verbal version. Participants are not required to speak. See the project website for more details, also Marinis et al. (2023)

Genericity

In collaboration with Tanja Kupisch (a.o.); we 

  • monitor the interpretation of different NP types with respect to genericity in different languages, taking into account definiteness and semantic subclass
  • assess interpretation preferences for ambiguous and unambiguous expressions in a quantitative manner
  •  assess encoding of genericity in a variety of languages

See Czypionka & Kupisch (2019), Redolfi et al. (2021)

Syntactic categories

In collaboration with Joanna Blaszczak and Dorota Klimek-Jankowska; we investigate the distinction between nouns and verbs and what drives the corresponding P200 component (see Blaszczak et al., 2018)

Aspect

In collaboration with Dorota Klimek-Jankowska and Joanna Blaszczak; we investigate the processing of verbal aspect in Polish using eyetracking and self-paced reading.

See Klimek-Jankowska et al. (2018)

Experimental pragmatics

In collaboration with S.Lauer; we monitor

  • the interpretation of temporal expressions and temporal implicatures
  • the timecourse of processing temporal implicatures