Parallel Planning and Verb Tense Errors
Author:
Jimmy Pronchick ’23Co-Authors:
Faculty Mentor(s):
Heidi Lorimor, LinguisticsFunding Source:
Ruth Everett Sierzega Chair in LinguisticsAbstract
Speech errors are a common phenomenon, even in one’s native language. Thus, speech errors have been widely researched in psycholinguistics as a way of understanding the mental processes involved in language production. In this study we investigated the type of errors that occur when a speaker uses a tensed form of a verb when a non-tensed form should have been used. For example, in the sentence “She didn’t meant that,” the tensed form “meant” should be the non-tensed “mean”.
One cause for this type of error is interference from parallel sentence plans, where speakers may be planning multiple sentences in parallel, and errors may arise when elements from a competing sentence leak through. (Brehm et al, 2022).
An example of parallel planning is when a speaker begins activating both “No problem” and “One moment”. They might start responding “One [moment]”, but if the other response is still active, they might actually end up saying “One problem.”
In order to investigate this effect with verb tense errors, we conducted an online behavioral study of English speakers using audio data that participants recorded on their own computers. We manipulated factors such as past/present tense, ir/regularity and non/connectedness to nouns in the sentences to determine whether any of these factors made tense errors more likely. We are in the process of analyzing the data. The results will help us better understand the cognitive processes underlying verb tense production and sentence planning in general.