Cognitive Mechanisms in Sentence Processing: Exploring Adaptability and Flexibility in Ungrammatical Sentence Comprehension through Syntactic Priming and Repeated Exposure

Abstract

Understanding how humans process and adapt to linguistic irregularities provides insight into the flexibility of the cognitive language system. This thesis investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying the comprehension of ungrammatical sentences, focusing on syntactic priming, repeated exposure, and linguistic adaptability across native and non-native speakers. Building on the "Good Enough" model of sentence processing and theories of sentence acceptability, this research examines how exposure to ungrammatical structures influences language processing and how proficiency and contextual factors modulate these effects. Through a series of experiments, this work explores the role of repeated exposure in adapting to grammatical anomalies, revealing the processing system’s capacity to learn from linguistic variability. Additionally, it evaluates the impact of syntactic priming on the comprehension of structurally similar ungrammatical sentences, highlighting the influence of lexical overlap and thematic roles. Comparing native and non-native speakers provides insights into how linguistic proficiency shapes adaptability and resilience in managing grammatical violations. By integrating findings from eye-tracking, self-paced reading, and acceptability judgment tasks, this thesis demonstrates the robust and dynamic nature of the human language processing system. The results contribute to our understanding of how cognitive mechanisms accommodate ungrammatical input, offering broader implications for psycholinguistics, second