Research & Teaching

The Priming of Scalar Words in Implicature Processing

Collaborators: Nicole Gotzner (Osnabrück University), Stavroula Alexandropoulou (UCL), Eszter Ronai (Northwestern University), Matt Husband (University of Oxford)

Alternatives have been postulated to play a crucial role in scalar implicature derivation. Standard accounts of the phenomenon (e.g. Horn, 1972) place the crux of the process on the negation of a stronger scale-mate by the comprehender.  However, recent studies point to a potential role for informationally weaker items on the same scale as well. In this research, we investigate which alternatives are relevant in the process of implicature derivation by using priming methods. We focus especially on adjectival scales (e.g. <warm, hot>) and ask whether (and if so how and when) certain scalar words are primed depending on whether an implicature ought or ought not be computed.

Check out the preprint of our paper on the influence of negation and antonymy on scalar alternative activation submitted to Glossa: Psycholinguistics.

Have a look at our preprint that takes a look at the phenomenon of scalar diversity through the lens of priming to be published in CogSci Proceedings.

Agreement Attraction in Czech, Slovak, and English

Collaborators: Jan Chromý (Charles University), Jakub Dotlačil (Utrecht University), James Brand (Charles University),  Anna Laurinavichyute (University of Potsdam)

Agreement attraction effects in comprehension, mostly facilitatory interference, has been observed in English and in other languages. This project aims to provide a further cross-linguistic test of this effect in Czech and Slovak. We are working on both number and gender agreement attraction in the two languages comparing the size of these effects to those observed in English. We are also examining the role of case syncretism in the modulation of facilitatory interference.  Gender attraction effects in production are also being investigated. Finally, we are investigating attraction effects in comprehension in Czech L2 speakers of English.

Check out our papers published in CogSci Proceedings, Glossa: Psycholinguistics, and OpenMind.

Focus Alternative Representation in Czech

Collaborators: Nicole Gotzner (Osnabrück University), Radek Šimík (Charles University)

Research on the processing of focus has long been conducted mostly on Germanic languages (Gotzner & Spalek, 2019). There is a great need in our building of a theory of the processing of focus to replicate the findings that narrow focus activates a set of contrastive alternatives on different languages. In this project, we aimed to conduct a series of online experiments testing this on Czech. We found preliminary evidence of word order inducing the activation and representation of focus alternatives in Czech.

Check out our paper published in the Proceedings of SuB27. 

Alternative Representation in Broad Focus Constructions

Collaborators: Nicole Gotzner (Osnabrück University), Patrick Sturt (University of Edinburgh)

It has been found that in processing, narrow focus on nouns can activate semantic associates out of which a selection process creates a set of contextually plausible alternatives (Braun & Tagliapietra, 2010; Husband & Ferreira, 2016). This is consistent with Rooth's (1992) theoretical account. This theory also makes the prediction that alternatives to whole VPs should be activated and selected in cases of broad focus. In a series of probe recognition experiments, we found that effects previously identified in narrow focus do not straightforwardly translate to larger constituents and some evidence in favour of alternatives being represented with differences between nouns and verbs in terms of their interactions with focus particles. 

Check out our chapter in an upcoming book published by LangSci Press.

Journal articles

Chromý, J., Brand, J. L., Laurinavichyute, A., & Lacina, R., (2023). Number agreement attraction in Czech and English comprehension: A direct experimental comparison. Glossa: Psycholinguistics, 2(1): 14, pp. 1–20. Available here.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., Dotlačil, J. (2023). Number Agreement Attraction in Czech Comprehension: Negligible Facilitation Effects. Open Mind, 7, pp. 802–836. DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00107.

Reviewed book chapters

Gotzner, N. & Lacina, R., (accepted). Generating and selecting alternatives for scalar implicature computation: The Alternative Activation Account and other theories. Accepted for publication as a book chapter in Alternatives: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. Preprint uploaded onto ResearchGate. Available here.

Lacina, R., Sturt, P., & Gotzner, N. (accepted). The comprehension of broad focus: Probing alternatives to verb phrases. Accepted for publication as a book chapter in the series Topics at the Grammar-Discourse Interface. Language Science Press. Preprint uploaded onto PsyArXiv. Available here. 

Conference proceedings

Lacina, R. & Dotlačil, J. (accepted). Grammaticality illusions in Czech: A speeded acceptability study of number agreement attraction. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 46, No. 46). Preprint here.

Lacina, R. & Gotzner, N. (accepted). Exploring scalar diversity through priming: A lexical decision study with adjectives. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 46, No. 46). Preprint here.

Lacina, R., Šimík, R., & Gotzner, N. (2023). 'Czech' the Alternatives: A Probe Recognition Study of Focus and Word Order. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 27, 365–380. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18148/sub/2023.v27.1075.

Lacina, R. & Chromý, J. (2022). No agreement attraction facilitation observed in Czech: Not even syncretism helps. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 44, No. 44). Available here.

Working papers

Lacina, R. (under review). The negative concord illusion: An acceptability study with Czech neg-words. Submitted to Linguistics Vanguard. Preprint uploaded onto PsyArXiv. Available here.

Lacina, R. (under review). Under no illusion: An acceptability study on Czech agreement attraction. Submitted to Naše řeč. Preprint uploaded onto PsyArXiv. Available here.

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (under review). Scalar alternative activation in implicature processing: A lexical decision study with antonyms and negation. Submitted to Glossa: Psycholinguistics. Preprint uploaded onto PsyArXiv. Available here.

Talks

Lacina, R., Šimík, R., & Gotzner, N. (2022). Comprehending Czech Focus: A Probe Recognition Study of Alternatives. Talk given at the Psycholinguistics of Slavic Languages 2022 conference, July 14 - 16 Tübingen, Germany.

Lacina, R., Sturt, P., & Gotzner, N. (2022). Alternatives in Broad-scope Focus: Testing Rooth's Theory on VP-constituents. Talk given online at the 44th Annual Conference of the German Linguistics Society, February 23 - 25 Tübingen, Germany.

Posters & Short Talks

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (2023). The Priming of Informationally Weaker Alternatives: Antonyms and Negation. Poster presented at the 10th Experimental Pragmatics conference, September 20 - 22 Paris, France.

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (2023). Priming Scalar Alternatives under Negation and by Antonyms in Lexical Decision. Poster presented at the 29th Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing conference, August 31 - September 2 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.

Lacina, R., & Dotlačil, J. (2023). Czech number agreement attraction: Modifying attractors with relative clauses. Poster presented at the 29th Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing conference, August 31 - September 2 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (2023). Which alternatives are relevant in scalar implicature processing? A priming study with antonyms and negation. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, July 26 - 29 Sydney, Australia.

Lacina, R., Husband, E.M., & Gotzner, N. (2022). The Representation of Focus Alternatives in Pseudoclefts: A Probe Recognition Study. Pre-registration poster presented at the 9th Experimental Pragmatics Conference, September 22 – 23 Pavia, Italy.

Lacina, R.,  Šimík, R., & Gotzner, N. (2022). “Czech” the Alternatives: A Probe Recognition Study of Focus and Word Order.  Poster presented at the 27th Sinn und Bedeutung Conference, September 14 – 16 Prague, Czech Republic.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., & Brand, J. (2022). Number agreement attraction in Czech and English: A direct experimental comparison. Poster presented at the 28th Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing 2022 Conference, September 7-9, York, UK.

Lacina, R., Sturt, P., & Gotzner, N. (2022) The Comprehension of Broad Focus: Probing Roothian Alternatives. Poster given at CogSci2022, July 27 - 30, Toronto, Canada.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., & Brand, J. (2022). Number agreement attraction in Czech and English: A direct experimental comparison. Poster given at the Psycholinguistics of Slavic Languages 2022 conference, July 14 - 16 Tübingen, Germany.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., & Dotlačil, J. (2022). Number-matching attractors fail to facilitate comprehension in Czech. Poster presented at the Psycholinguistics of Slavic Languages 2022 conference, July 14 - 16 Tübingen, Germany.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., & Dotlačil, J. (2022). Number-matching attractors fail to facilitate comprehension in Czech. Poster presented virtually at the 35th Annual Human Sentence Processing Conference, March 24 – 26 Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

Lacina, R., Šimík, R., & Gotzner, N. (2022). Focus and word order: The representation of alternatives in Czech. Poster presented virtually at the 35th Annual Human Sentence Processing Conference, March 24 – 26 Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

Lacina, R., Sturt, P., & Gotzner, N. (2022). Probing alternatives to focused VP-constituents: A test of the Roothian approach. Poster presented at virtually the 35th Annual Human Sentence Processing Conference, March 24 – 26 Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

Lacina, R., Gotzner, N., & Sturt, P. (2021). Alternatives in Broad-scope Focus: Testing Rooth's Theory on VP-constituents. Short talk given virtually at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing 2021, September 2 - 4 Paris, France.

Chromý, J. & Lacina, R. (2021). Number Agreement Attraction in Czech: A Self-paced Reading Study. Short talk given virtually at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing 2021, September 2 - 4 Paris, France.

Lacina, R. & Husband, E.M. (2020). Grammatical constraints on focus alternatives? The case of phi-features in Czech. Poster presented virtually at the 33rd Annual CUNY Human Sentence Processing Conference, March 19 – 21 Amherst, MA, USA. Available at: https://osf.io/e6hgc/

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (2023). Priming Scalar Alternatives: Negation and Antonyms. Talk given at Doctoral Students’ Colloquium, Osnabrück University, July 11 Osnabrück, Germany. 

Lacina, R., Dotlačil, J., Chromý, J., Laurinavichyute, A., & Brand, J. (2023). Number agreement attraction in Czech (or the lack thereof). Talk given at Colloquium in Sentence Processing, University of Potsdam, July 6 Potsdam, Germany. 

Lacina, R., Alexandropoulou, S., Ronai, E., & Gotzner, N. (2023). Priming scalar alternatives. Talk given at Colloquium in Sentence Processing, University of Potsdam, June 28 Potsdam, Germany.

Lacina, R., & Dotlačil, J. (2023). Czech number agreement attraction: Modifying attractors with relative clauses. Talk given at April 2023 meeting of the Friday Primes group. April 28, Berlin, Germany.

Lacina, R. (2022). Focus Alternatives in Processing: Evidence from English and Czech. Talk given at SFB1287’s Pragmatics meeting. August 31 Potsdam, Germany.

Chromý, J., Lacina, R., & Brand, J. (2022). Number agreement attraction in Czech and English: A direct experimental comparison. Talk given at Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning 2022 Workshop, September 12-13, Zürich, Switzerland.

Lacina, R., Šimík, R., & Gotzner, N. (2022). Probing Focus Alternatives in Czech: The Processing of Focus Marked by Word Order. Talk given at Syntax-Semantics Colloquium, May 17 Potsdam, Germany.

Lacina, R., Sturt, P., & Gotzner, N. (2021). Testing Rooth’s Alternative Semantics in Comprehension: Probing Focused VP-constituents. Talk given at Psychosemantics Colloquium, November 15 Potsdam, Germany.

Lacina, R. & Gotzner, N. (2021). The alternative activation theory: A unified account of the processing of focus and implicature?. Online talk given at Scales, degrees and implicature: Novel synergies between semantics and pragmatics, May 26 - 28 Potsdam, Germany.

Lacina, R. & Husband, E.M. (2020). Grammatical constraints on focus alternatives? The case of phi-features in Czech. Poster presented at Focus alternatives: Theoretical and empirical perspectives, February 27 - 28 Berlin, Germany. 

Language and Brain Laboratory

• Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, University of Oxford

• Sponsor: E. Matthew Husband

• February 2024 – May 2024

• Academic Visitor

As an academic visitor at the University of Oxford, I focus on the continuation of the collaboration with Matthew Husband, researching the time-course of the activation of scalar alternatives in language comprehension. I received funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for this stay.

Laboratory for Behavioural and Linguistic Studies

• Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences

• Supervisor: Filip Smolík 

• August 2018 – September 2018

• Research Assistant Intern

During this internship, I was given a variety of tasks including setting up experimental procedures, corpus work or conducting literature reviews. I was also able to discuss research issues with both junior and senior academics and observe how experiments with young children are conducted.

Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University

Spring Semester 2021 and 2022

External Lecturer

This Czech-taught course is an introduction to the field of psycholinguistics for both BA and MA level students of linguistics (it is available to other students too). It consists of lectures, guided discussions and essay writing. The course covers various areas of the acquisition, production and comprehension of language. It focuses on the student's ability to independently read primary research studies and understand their design.

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University

Autumn Semester 2020  and 2022

External Lecturer

I taught and assessed the course PSYb2861 The Psychology of Language, which is open to undergraduate students of Psychology. The course was taught in English and covered twelve topics within language acquisition, production, and comprehension. I created the course content, gave lectures, and held seminar sessions weekly. I also assessed the students' essays and worked with them to implement writing feedback during short one-on-one tutorial sessions. In both its content and assessment, it focused on reading primary research literature and improving the students’ argumentation and critical reflection skills. 

Secondary supervisor

Lucie Návratová (Dept of Psych, FSS, Masaryk Uni): Affective processing in functional bilinguals: a comparison of word emotionality ratings to monolingual norms, defended June 8, 2022

9. Linguistik Meetup Berlin-Brandenburg, University of Potsdam, September 29, 2022.