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. 2024 Apr 24:15:1360191.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1360191. eCollection 2024.

Syntactic structures in motion: investigating word order variations in verb-final (Korean) and verb-initial (Tongan) languages

Katsuo Tamaoka  1   2 , Shaoyun Yu  3 , Jingyi Zhang  4 , Yuko Otsuka  5 , Hyunjung Lim  6 , Masatoshi Koizumi  7 , Rinus G Verdonschot  8
Affiliations

Syntactic structures in motion: investigating word order variations in verb-final (Korean) and verb-initial (Tongan) languages

Katsuo Tamaoka et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

This study explored sentence processing in two typologically distinct languages: Korean, a verb-final language, and Tongan, a verb-initial language. The first experiment revealed that in Korean, sentences arranged in the scrambled OSV (Object, Subject, Verb) order were processed more slowly than those in the canonical SOV order, highlighting a scrambling effect. It also found that sentences with subject topicalization in the SOV order were processed as swiftly as those in the canonical form, whereas sentences with object topicalization in the OSV order were processed with speeds and accuracy comparable to scrambled sentences. However, since topicalization and scrambling in Korean use the same OSV order, independently distinguishing the effects of topicalization is challenging. In contrast, Tongan allows for a clear separation of word orders for topicalization and scrambling, facilitating an independent evaluation of topicalization effects. The second experiment, employing a maze task, confirmed that Tongan's canonical VSO order was processed more efficiently than the VOS scrambled order, thereby verifying a scrambling effect. The third experiment investigated the effects of both scrambling and topicalization in Tongan, finding that the canonical VSO order was processed most efficiently in terms of speed and accuracy, unlike the VOS scrambled and SVO topicalized orders. Notably, the OVS object-topicalized order was processed as efficiently as the VSO canonical order, while the SVO subject-topicalized order was slower than VSO but faster than VOS. By independently assessing the effects of topicalization apart from scrambling, this study demonstrates that both subject and object topicalization in Tongan facilitate sentence processing, contradicting the predictions based on movement-based anticipation.

Keywords: scrambling; topicalization; verb (head)-final language; verb (head)-initial language; word order.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A single trial of the Korean sentence correctness decision task.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Accuracies of the four word orders of Korean sentences. The values after ± refer to standard errors.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Reaction times of the four word orders of Korean sentences. The values after ± refer to standard errors.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A series of lexical decisions in the lexical maze task.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Reaction times for processing first phrase (P1) to fourth phrase (P4) of canonical AdvVSO and scrambled AdvVOS ordered sentences. The values after ± refer to standard errors.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Accuracies for the four word orders of Tongan sentences. The values after ± refer to standard errors.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Reaction times of the four word orders of Tongan sentences. The values after ± refer to standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (#19H05589, PI: Masatoshi Koizumi at Tohoku University, Japan).

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