Word order preferences in Spanish transitive sentences: The case of psychological verbs.

Abstract

The study of psychological predicates contributes to determine how semantic and syntactic information interacts. They are a type of predicates that allow different argument configurations (e.g. JuanEXP teme a María; A MaríaEXP le gusta Juan). The current study aims to determine the preferences of word order of psychological verbs with dative experiencers in Spanish. I do this by replicating the experimental design in Gattei et al. (2015). I run a self-paced reading task with two variables: verb type (non-psych vs. psychological) and word order (SVO vs. OVS). Results indicate that there is an interaction between verb type and word order: faster reaction times were produced in sentences with psychological predicates with OVS word order, than in those with SVO word order. In the framework of the eADM, SVO word order in psychological predicates with dative experiencer causes a rearrangement of the first argument, provoking slower reaction times than the OVS word order.