Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP) 2024

I presented two posters at the HSP 2024 conference. HSP is one of my favorite conferences. It feels great to meet such a brilliant crowd working on sentence processing.

Aspectual Coercion: A New Method to Probe Aspectual Commitments

My first work, titled “Aspectual Coercion: A New Method to Probe Aspectual Commitments,” is in collaboration with Yue Ji and Anna Papafragou. This study introduces a novel method combining aspectual comprehension with event cognition to detect changes in how individuals construe events after reading sentences with varying aspectual information. Participants read sentences—either telic or atelic, with or without coercion—followed by a video clip related to the sentence. They assessed if the actor completed the task and identified any brief interruptions during the event. The results revealed distinct cognitive responses to aspectual coercion, highlighting differences between coercion types. This method advances our understanding of how lexical aspect influences event representation, offering insights into the nuanced effects of aspectual coercion on cognitive processing and event perception.

Symmetrical Or Not?: A New Method To Probe Real-Time Semantic Categorization

The second work is a poster titled “Symmetrical Or Not?: A New Method To Probe Real-Time Semantic Categorization,” in collaboration with Heesu Yun, Barbara Landau, and John Trueswell. This study investigates how syntax and lexical semantics contribute to the interpretation of symmetry in language using a novel eye-tracking method. Our findings demonstrate that while syntax primarily guides initial interpretations of symmetry, lexical semantics also plays a significant role, especially in transitive constructions. This research provides insights into the interaction between syntax and semantics and offers a new approach to examining real-time interpretations of abstract semantic categories.