title: The difference between "giving a rose" and "giving a kiss": Sustained neural activity to the light verb construction.
abstract: We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with processing light verb constructions such as "give a kiss". These constructions consist of a semantically underspecified light verb ("give") and an event nominal that contributes most of the meaning and also activates an argument structure of its own ("kiss"). This creates a mismatch between the syntactic constituents and the semantic roles of a sentence. Native speakers read German verb-final sentences that contained light verb constructions (e.g., "Julius gave Anne a kiss"), non-light constructions (e.g., "Julius gave Anne a rose"), and semantically anomalous constructions (e.g., *"Julius gave Anne a conversation"). ERPs were measured at the critical verb, which appeared after all its arguments. Compared to non-light constructions, the light verb constructions evoked a widely distributed, frontally focused, sustained negative-going effect between 500 and 900 ms after verb onset. We interpret this effect as reflecting working memory costs associated with complex semantic processes that establish a shared argument structure in the light verb constructions.
authors.affiliation: Tufts University, United States ; Potsdam University, Germany.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wittenberg
authors.affiliation: Tufts University, United States.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paczynski
authors.affiliation: Potsdam University, Germany.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.affiliation: Tufts University, United States.
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jackendoff
authors.affiliation: Tufts University, United States ; Massachusetts General Hospital, United States.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kuperberg
keywords: Argument structure; Event-related potential; Light verb constructions; Sentence processing; Sustained negativity; Syntax-semantics interface