{"pk":28206,"title":"Real-time roots of meaning change: Electrophysiology reveals the contextual-modulation processing basis of synchronic variation in the location-possession domain","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The present study seeks to substantiate a cognitively-groundedmodel of synchronic meaning variation and diachronic mean-ing change. We propose that inter-comprehender vari-ability in CONTEXT-SENSITIVITY drives variation in word-meanings along conceptual structure pathways; we test thismodel through English have and its underlying LOCATION-POSSESSION conceptual structure. Through acceptability rat-ings, self-paced reading times, and ERPs, we show thatrelevant context can facilitate the dispreferred but plausibleLOC interpretation of a have-sentence–the degree of facil-itation is predicted by individual differences in CONTEXT-SENSITIVITY, indexed here by gender and Autism Quotient.Altogether, our results suggest that the variation of have-sentences’ meanings is principled due to its unified concep-tual structure, and that conceptual structure together with con-text cooperate in guiding comprehension by modulating thesalience of competing variants in real-time. Ultimately, di-achronic change is naturally emergent from this model of nor-mal language processing.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"context; variation; real-time processing; compre-hension; semantics; conceptual structure; gender; AQ; self-paced reading; ERP"}],"section":"Publication-based-Talks","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/96j9m4s2","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Muye","middle_name":"","last_name":"Zhang","name_suffix":"","institution":"Yale","department":""},{"first_name":"Maria","middle_name":"Mercedes","last_name":"Pinango","name_suffix":"","institution":"Yale","department":""},{"first_name":"Ashwini","middle_name":"","last_name":"Deo","name_suffix":"","institution":"Ohio State","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2018-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/28206/galley/17865/download/"}]}