Syntactic, Semantic and Information-Structural Constraints in Processing Adjuncts
The project (started in 11/2011) investigated adjuncts at the syntax-semantics interface from a processing perspective. The main aim of the project was to gain new insights into the dynamics of meaning constitution during incremental language processing. The project was concerned with one of the core questions of the B Area, namely how incremental semantic processing interacts with grammar and context. The goal for the last funding period was to establish an elaborate model of adjunct processing, underpinned by a broader empirical basis as well as compositional analyses of the phenomena under investigation. Based on our results from the second funding period, we argued for a two-stage model of adjunct processing with an early stage of compositional processing which is followed by a processing stage in which, e.g., information structural factors are evaluated. With regard to the first stage of compositional processing, we saw evidence for immediate as well as delayed composition. Our claim that these effects are due to properties of the involved processing domains were tested in the last funding period. With regard to the second processing phase, we focused on the role of context for immediate vs. delayed evaluation of information structural factors. Our model of adjunct processing is an important ingredient for the model of semantic processing developed within project Area B.
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