Similar does not mean same: ERP correlates of processing mental and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam complex constructions

Abstract

The present study examined the neurophysiological correlates of processing mental experiencer verbs and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam complex constructions, in which the subject argument assumed the experiencer role. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as twenty-eight first-language speakers of Malayalam read intransitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs. The subject case either matched the requirements of the verb in the critical stimuli, thereby rendering the sentence acceptable, or it violated the requirements of the verb, and thus rendering the sentence unacceptable. Both mental and physical experiencer verbs engendered negativity effects in the 400-600 ms time-window when the subject case did not match the verbs requirements. Additionally, mental experiencer verbs evoked a LAN-like effect in the same time window regardless of grammaticality. Thus, even though both kinds of experiencer verbs are processed qualitatively similarly, inherent differences between mental and physical experiencer verbs in Malayalam persist and are discernible.