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Abstract:
Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during
spoken language comprehension to study the on-line effects of
subject-verb number agreement violations. Spanish sentences were
constructed in which the verb of an embedded complement clause
either agreed or clashed in number with its subject. The results
showed a complex biphasic ERP (i.e., an early negativity with
prominence at anterior and central sites, followed by a
centroparietal positivity) in the violating condition as compared
to the non-violating condition. This replicates, in Spanish,
results reported previously in English (Osterhout & Mobley,
1995).
Examples
(a) Miguel reiteraba que Ana pasó la tarde en casa.
"Miguel reiterated that Ana spent-SG the afternoon at home."
(b) Miguel reiteraba que Ana *pasaron la tarde en casa.
"Miguel reiterated that Ana spent-PL the afternoon at home."
References
Osterhout, L., & Mobley, L. A. (1995). Event-related brain
potentials elicited by failure to agree.
Journal of Memory and Language,
34, 739-773.
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