The representation and processing of participant role information

Various attempts to characterize the representation of verb argument structure and participant role information are discussed and evaluated. It is concluded that the representation of verb argument structure and participant role information must include both situation–based prototypical role–filler information, as suggested by McRae et al.'s (Language and Cognitive Processes: Special Issue on Lexical Representations in Sentence Processing, 12, 137–176, 1997) verb–specific concept view, and more abstract, semantic role and role property information, as suggested by Koenig et al. (Cognition, 89, 67–103, 2003) lexical encoding hypothesis. Two questions about processing of these two aspects of participant role information are then posed: (1) Are both of aspects of participant role information automatically activated? and (2) How do these aspects of participant role information influence online sentence comprehension? Based on evidence from Su (When is semantic priming automatic? Instrument and location participant role priming as a case study, Unpublished doctoral dissertation 2013), it is concluded that situation–based prototypical role–filler information is not automatically activated by verbs. Evidence regarding the automatic activation of more abstract semantic role property information from sentence processing studies is less direct and not conclusive. Three ways in which these two aspects of participant role information might influence online language comprehension are then discussed. In particular, the role of participant role information in guiding syntactic attachment decisions, integrating constituents such as WH fillers into sentence representations, and anticipating the mention of participant role fillers is examined. It is concluded that both aspects of participant role information may influence all three processes, but when and how they are used during online comprehension may vary as a function of task demands, the comprehender’s goals, and referential contexts.