The processing of person and number features in turkish: An event related potentials (erp) study1 Türkçede kişi ve sayı özelliklerinin işlemlenmesi: Olaya ilişkin beyin potansiyelleri (oip) çalışması

Abstract

© 2021 Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi, İstanbul.Agreement is one of the most studied linguistic features in the field of language processing. There are two views regarding the processing of Person and Number features. According to the first view, Person and Number features are defined as distinct probes in derivation, while the latter view suggests that these features are bundle features. The current study investigated whether there is any difference in the processing of Person and Number features in Turkish using Event Related Potentials (ERP). Results revealed N400 + P600 patterns in the processing of both Person and Number features, with a greater N400 amplitude for the Person feature than in the Number feature. A greater N400 amplitude suggests more resources are required for the processing of a Person feature than the Number feature. Supporting the distinct features view mentioned above, our results show that there is a difference in the processing of Person and Number features and we claim that Person feature has a privileged linguistic status.