The processing of sentences and the syntax-semantics interface: Contrast between two psycholinguistic models

Abstract

The current work describes the relevant psycholinguistic models that explain how the link between syntax and semantics is carried out during the processing of sentences in real time. The implementation of this link allows speakers to interpret ‘who does what to whom’ correctly. Two models are presented which take into account the specific differences of each language and at the same time they propose a universal mechanism for the interpretation of simple clauses: the Extended Argument Dependency Model and the Linking and Checking Model. These models try to explain how these processes would be carried out during the incremental comprehension from two theoretical frameworks of formal linguistics: the Role and Reference Grammar and Generativism. Then it is presented how these models would resolve the interpretation of an event whose link between syntax and semantics is non-canonical and it is discussed which model has a greater explanatory power.