Aya Meltzer-Asscher

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at Tel Aviv University

This study investigates the language production mechanisms underlying the creation of filler-gap dependencies (e.g., relative clauses: This is the boy that the girl from Norway saw_ yesterday), which require speakers to establish an argument-predicate relationship between a phrase, the 'filler', (the boy) and a further embedded predicate (saw). We...

During sentence processing, comprehenders form predictions regarding the unfolding of the sentence. The current study is designed to tease apart the role of syntactic motivations, pragmatic considerations and contextual prediction in active dependency formation. Using both production and comprehension measures, we observe prediction for the resolut...

Although the grammatical status of resumptive pronouns varies from one language to the other, these elements occur in spontaneous speech cross-linguistically, giving rise to a long-held intuition that resumption has a processing function, facilitating production and/or comprehension. In this review, I examine the central threads of thought related...

Ample evidence suggests that during word recognition and production, simultaneously activated lexical and sublexical representations interact, demonstrating varied patterns of facilitation and inhibition in various tasks and measures. A separate line of research has led to a growing consensus that prediction during sentence processing involves acti...

Production and perception errors are common in everyday language use. Recent studies suggest that in order to overcome the flawed speech signal, comprehenders engage in rational noisy-channel processing, which can pull their interpretation towards more probable “near-neighbor” analyses, based on the assumption that an error may have occurred in the...

In three forced-choice completion experiments in Hebrew, the present study investigates the degree to which attachment decisions in sentences with local ambiguity are driven by the goal to maximize interpretation during incremental processing. In particular, we examine a processing strategy aimed at thematic assignment maximization proposed by Prit...

In three forced-choice completion experiments in Hebrew, the present study investigates the degree to which attachment decisions in sentences with local ambiguity are driven by the goal to maximize interpretation during incremental processing. In particular, we examine a processing strategy aimed at thematic assignment maximization proposed by Prit...

Modern Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown human-like abilities in many language tasks, sparking interest in comparing LLMs' and humans' language processing. In this paper, we conduct a detailed comparison of the two on a sentence comprehension task using garden-path constructions, which are notoriously challenging for humans. Based on psycholi...

As they process complex linguistic input, language comprehenders must maintain a mapping between lexical items (e.g., morphemes) and their syntactic position in the sentence. We propose a model of how these morpheme‐position bindings are encoded, maintained, and reaccessed in working memory, based on working memory models such as “serial‐order‐in‐a...

The possessive dative construction has been widely adopted as an unaccusativity diagnostic (Borer and Grodzinsky 1986). Gafter (2014) casts doubt on the relevance of unaccusativity to the acceptability of the construction. We ran a series of acceptability judgment experiments to investigate the validity of the possessive dative construction as an u...

Languages with non-concatenative morphology are often claimed to include consonantal root morphemes in their lexicon. Previous psycholinguistic studies strengthened the Root Hypothesis, showing that words in Arabic, Hebrew, and Maltese prime targets with the same stem consonants, with semantic relation playing a limited role. We provide a re-analys...

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In contrast to fixed subject-verb word order in English, Hebrew allows also a word order where the verb appears before the subject, particularly with unaccusative or passive verbs (e. g. halxa ha-medina). In English, reading of locally syntactically ambiguous sentences as in (1) results in processing breakdown when reading the main verb (‘was retur...

The present study focuses on individual differences in the ability to recover from an initial misinterpretation during the processing of garden path (GP) sentences with local syntactic ambiguity. The performance of reanalysis in GP sentences is a cognitive task that requires efficient use of executive functions and allocation of working memory reso...

The present study focuses on individual differences in the ability to recover from an initial misinterpretation during the processing of garden path (GP) sentences with local syntactic ambiguity as in (1): (1) While Susan drank the water evaporated quickly. The performance of reanalysis in GP sentences is a cognitive task that requires efficient us...

Background. Examining one of the central issues in sentence processing, i.e. parsing choices for structurally ambiguous input, some theories argued that these are made primarily based on locality considerations [1-3], while others have highlighted the role of lexical biases [4-6]. An alternative theory, which has received very little empirical atte...

Recent studies indicate that the processing of an unexpected word is costly when the initial, disconfirmed prediction was strong. This penalty was suggested to stem from commitment to the strongly predicted word, requiring its inhibition when disconfirmed. Additional studies show that comprehenders rationally adapt their predictions in different si...

Ample evidence suggests that during sentence processing comprehenders can “pre‐activate” lexical/semantic knowledge stored in long‐term memory. A relatively recent development suggests that in some cases a stronger form of prediction is employed, involving “pre‐updating” the predicted content into the sentence's representation being built in workin...

The performance of reanalysis invoked by garden path (GP) sentences can be viewed as a cognitive task requiring the efficient use of different functions driven by dopamine, e.g. working memory updating and inhibition and flexibility. Resting-state eye blink rate (EBR) is an effective measure of tonic dopamine activity. We investigate relations betw...

Production and perception errors are common in everyday language use. Recent studies suggest that in order to overcome the flawed speech signal, comprehenders engage in rational noisy-channel processing, which can pull their interpretation towards more probable “near-neighbor” analyses, based on the assumption that an error may have occurred in the...

During sentence processing, comprehenders form predictions regarding the unfolding of the sentence. The current study is designed to tease apart the role of syntactic motivations, pragmatic considerations and contextual prediction in active dependency formation. Using both production and comprehension measures, we observe prediction for the resolut...

Word-class ambiguous words engender greater processing time and fMRI (BOLD signal) activation than unambiguous ones. Theoretical accounts of this phenomenon suggest that words with multiple meanings (1) are associated with multiple lexical entries and thus require greater selection demands, or (2) undergo computationally expensive grammatical proce...

Wh-island effects are notorious for their cross-linguistic variation. However, experimental syntax studies observed super-additive wh-island effects in some languages which were previously argued to be immune to them. In four acceptability judgment experiments, we investigate the origin of super-additivity in acceptable wh-islands, so-called “subli...

Prediction during sentence processing was suggested to involve two qualitatively distinct mechanisms: “pre-activation” of representations in long-term memory, and “pre-updating” of working memory (WM) representation to include the predicted content. Pre-updating was recently demonstrated as an increased P600 amplitude prior to a highly predictable...

Many studies share the intuition that resumptive pronouns (RPs) aid in retrieving an inaccessible filler. We examine this notion using both simple and highly taxing sentences in Hebrew. Two SPR experiments suggest that RPs introduce anaphoric ambiguity and may disrupt the retrieval of the filler. Another experiment, testing complexity ratings of ce...

Agreement attraction effects are a window to linguistic representations during production and comprehension. We investigate how the discourse representation of the distractor modulates agreement attraction. We examine grammatical gender “attraction” between a resumptive pronoun (RP) and a noun outside of the relative clause complex, in Hebrew sente...

Throughout an open filler-gap dependency, some features of the filler are actively maintained in working-memory, while others decay and are retrieved at the gap. The current study asks whether the availability of certain features of the filler (due to their maintenance) influences the parser’s attempt to posit a gap upon encountering a verb. We rep...

It was recently proposed that lexical prediction in sentence context encompasses two qualitatively distinct prediction mechanisms: “pre-activation,” namely, activating representations stored in long-term memory, and “pre-updating,” namely, updating the sentence's representation, built online in working memory (WM), to include the predicted content...

This paper explores the processing effects of a reanalysis that is due to a realization of an optionally overt element. Two self-paced reading experiments demonstrate that, in Hebrew, direct object resumptive pronouns are read faster when they appear before the verb and slower when they appear in the direct object's canonical position after it. We...

In a self-paced reading experiment, we asked what guides processing: probabilistic thematic information or categorical thematic information coupled with the need to satisfy the Theta Criterion. Optionally transitive verbs varying in their transitivity bias were incorporated into Garden Path sentences of two structures, one in which rapid satisfacti...

Is the processing of reflexive pronouns sensitive? Slogget & Dillon (2017) argue that agreement attraction effects found in English reflect a “logophoric” reading (i.e. coreference with the point-of-view holder). Our study suggests that a logophoric antecedent for an object position reflexive is not available in Hebrew online processing (in line wi...

During sentence processing, comprehenders form expectations regarding upcoming material, and may even predict a specific word. Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that disconfirmed predictions elicit a post-N400-positivity (PNP) with two distinct distributions. A frontal-PNP (f-PNP) is elicited when an unexpected but congruent...

During the temporal delay between the filler and gap sites in long-distance dependencies, the“active filler” strategy can be implemented in two ways: the filler phrase can be actively maintained in working memory (“maintenance account”), or it can be retrieved only when the parser posits a gap (“retrieval account”). The current study tested whether...

Previous studies concluded that despite the parser’s eagerness to resolve filler-gap dependencies, in island configurations it prefers to posit late grammatical gaps over early ungrammatical ones. This study investigates the possibility of resolving filler-gap dependencies inside Hebrew islands. We investigated the acceptability of resumptive prono...

During sentence processing, comprehenders form expectations regarding upcoming material. Lau et al. (2013) suggested a distinction between pre-activation of representations in LTM and pre-updating of WM to include the predicted word. We sought evidence for integration prior to the onset of a highly predictable word using the P600 ERP component, sug...

Two elicited production experiments examined structural choices in the production of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. Hebrew speakers produced more resumptive pronouns in non-restrictive relative clauses, whereas English speakers produced more passives. This pattern suggests that there may be a connection between the processing pre...

Two cross-modal priming experiments probed the semantic activation of the filler throughout the processing of object relative clauses with and without resumptive pronouns. Results indicate a slow-down in dependency formation in filler-resumptive dependencies.

Studies have shown that during the processing of a sentence, listeners/readers make predictions regarding upcoming words (van Petten & Luka, 2012). The current study sought to examine the mechanisms that come into action when such predictions are not met. We hypothesized that if the most predictable lexical item is pre-activated (and perhaps integr...

Hebrew is generally considered a language with grammaticized resumption, in which resumptive pronouns (RPs) and gaps alternate freely in direct object position. The current study investigates whether and how speakers' acceptability judgments of direct object RPs in Hebrew are affected by the position of the relative clause in the main clause and th...

Naming and word-retrieval deficits, which are common characteristics of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), differentially affect production across word classes (e.g., nouns, verbs) in some patients. Individuals with the agrammatic variant (PPA-G) often show greater difficulty producing verbs whereas those with the semantic variant (PPA-S) show grea...

While the argument structure of verbs has long been a central issue in linguistic research of all varieties and continues to be a vexed area of research across a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches, the inter-disciplinary perspective and dialogue remain largely under explored. This collection stems from an interest to find and explor...

Previous research has shown that comprehension of complex sentences involving wh-movement (e.g., object-relative clauses) elicits activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left posterior temporal cortex. However, relatively little is known about the neural correlates of processing passive sentences, which differ from other complex sen...

Cinque (1990) first discussed a class of ergative adjectives, mapping their subject internally. The existence of such adjectives is somewhat surprising, given that the subject of all other adjectives, including adjectival passives, is mapped externally. Establishing what sets apart ergative and unergative adjectives is thus crucial for understandin...

This study examines the neural correlates of processing verbal entries with multiple argument structures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared brain activation in response to ‘‘alternating transitivity’’ verbs, corresponding to two different verbal alternates*one transitive and one intransitive*and simple verbs, with only...

Sentence comprehension requires rapid processing of semantic as well as argument structure information, i.e. number and type of verb arguments. EEG studies with healthy individuals demonstrate that semantic violations elicit an N400 response, whereas argument structure violations elicit both N400 and P600 responses (Friederici & Frisch, 2000). Pre...

It is widely accepted that subjects of verbs are base-generated within the (extended) verbal projection. In this paper I argue that the same is not true for predicative adjectives. In line with Baker (2003), I argue that while subjects of adjectives originate below spec,TP, they are not generated within the AP (or aP), but rather in the specifier o...

The paper argues that the mechanism underlying verbal passive formation in English and Hebrew is different. Whereas in English the implicit external argument has a syntactic representation, in Hebrew it is represented only semantically. Coupled with Reinhart's (2002) Theta System, the analysis accounts for several thematic differences between passi...

The paper reports findings derived from three experiments examining syntactic and morphosyntactic processing in individuals with agrammatic and logopenic variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA-G and PPA-L, respectively) and stroke-induced agrammatic and anomic aphasia (StrAg and StrAn, respectively). We examined comprehension and production o...

This article focuses on Hebrew adjectival passives, showing that, as was claimed for other languages, the class of adjectival passives in Hebrew is not homogenous, but rather consists of two sub-classes. Former attempts to capture the non-homogenous nature of the class of adjectival passives in different languages relied mainly on the existence ver...

Successful sentence comprehension requires processing of information associated with the verb, i.e. the number and type of arguments, which are automatically activated during sentence processing. Both fMRI andERP studies implicate posterior perisylvian regions for argument structure processing (Thompson et al., 2007);with ERP studies showing distin...

The paper focuses on the categorial status of present participles in English and Hebrew, and on their formation. Using a large number of diagnostics, I show that while all present participles are verbal, only a subset of them are ambiguous, and have an adjectival reading in addition to their verbal one. I further claim that this subset is constrain...