The Cognitive Representation of Japanese Giving and Receiving Auxiliaries - Evidence from an Eye-tracking Study

摘要

This study investigated whether sentences with a Japanese give/receive auxiliary that implicitly distinguishes who conducts an action from who receives a benefit from that action can immediately evoke the distinct agent roles in an event, and thus mediate distinct eye movement patterns during scene perception. Our preliminary results showed that listeners are sensitive to this small but critical auxiliary component as they comprehend the event, and their eye movement patterns reflect how referred-to participants are involved in the event.