Aya Meltzer-Asscher
Biographic Data
| ID | 837760 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aya Meltzer-Asscher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aya |
| FAMILY NAME | Meltzer-Asscher |
| SIGNATURE | MELTZER-ASSCHER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4886-0029 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 38 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Representation distortion contributes to agreement attraction in comprehension
Sentence comprehension relies on encoding linguistic items in memory and accessing them subsequently to form linguistic dependencies. This makes processing susceptible to memory interference. Interference, such as the distortion of memory representations or access to irrelevant memory items, can lead to misinterpretation or grammatical errors. Over the years, research on agreement attraction has debated whether this hallmark of memory interferenc…
Interference in the formation of filler-gap dependencies
We test if fillers in filler-gap dependencies are susceptible to interference. • We find RT evidence for facilitatory interference in ungrammatical sentences. • RT evidence for inhibitory interference in grammatical sentences was not observed. • Inhibitory interference was found in comprehension accuracy. • A model explaining the different findings is proposed. Much research in sentence processing has shown that the formation of syntactic depende…
The representation of agreement features in memory is updated during sentence processing
The Relevance of Unaccusativity to Possessive Datives
The possessive dative construction has been widely adopted as an unaccusativity diagnostic (Borer and Grodzinsky 1986). Gafter (2014) casts doubt on the relevance of unaccusativity to the acceptability of the construction. We conducted a series of acceptability judgment experiments to investigate the validity of the possessive dative construction as an unaccusativity diagnostic, controlling for possible confounds such as animacy, definiteness, pl…
The roots of consonant bias in semitic languages
Prediction of successful reanalysis based on eye-blink rate and reading times in sentences with local ambiguity
The present study focuses on individual differences in the ability to recover from an initial misinterpretation during the processing of garden path (GP) sentences with local syntactic ambiguity. The performance of reanalysis in GP sentences is a cognitive task that requires efficient use of executive functions and allocation of working memory resources. In this study, we explored the possible role of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which has long…
Noisy is better than rare
Love thy neighbor
Resumptive Pronouns in Language Comprehension and Production
Although the grammatical status of resumptive pronouns varies from one language to the other, these elements occur in spontaneous speech cross-linguistically, giving rise to a long-held intuition that resumption has a processing function, facilitating production and/or comprehension. In this review, I examine the central threads of thought related to resumption and processing and consider the prominent theories and findings that have shaped the d…
A processing-based account of subliminal wh-island effects
Working Memory in the Processing of Long-Distance Dependencies
Active dependency formation in islands
Previous studies concluded that despite the parser's eagerness to resolve filler-gap dependencies, in island configurations it prefers to posit late grammatical gaps over early ungrammatical ones. This study investigates the possibility of resolving filler-gap dependencies inside Hebrew islands. We investigated the acceptability of resumptive pronouns (RPs) in two islands and the sensitivity of on-line dependency formation to the status of those …
Direct object resumption in Hebrew
Ergative Adjectives a Proposition-Selecting Predicates
Cinque (1990) first discussed a class of ergative adjectives, mapping their subject internally. The existence of such adjectives is somewhat surprising, given that the subject of all other adjectives, including adjectival passives, is mapped externally. Establishing what sets apart ergative and unergative adjectives is thus crucial for understanding argument structure in the adjectival domain. However, previous morphological or thematic attempts …
The subject of adjectives
It is widely accepted that subjects of verbs are base-generated within the (extended) verbal projection. In this paper I argue that the same is not true for predicative adjectives. In line with Baker (2003), I argue that while subjects of adjectives originate below spec,TP, they are not generated within the AP (or aP), but rather in the specifier of a higher functional projection, PredP. I further propose that the semantic relation between an adj…
Adjectival passives in Hebrew
Present participles
Adjectival passives in Hebrew
Present participles
A processing-based account of subliminal wh-island effects
Active dependency formation in islands
Previous studies concluded that despite the parser's eagerness to resolve filler-gap dependencies, in island configurations it prefers to posit late grammatical gaps over early ungrammatical ones. This study investigates the possibility of resolving filler-gap dependencies inside Hebrew islands. We investigated the acceptability of resumptive pronouns (RPs) in two islands and the sensitivity of on-line dependency formation to the status of those …
Direct object resumption in Hebrew
Working Memory in the Processing of Long-Distance Dependencies
Present participles
Adjectival passives in Hebrew
The subject of adjectives
It is widely accepted that subjects of verbs are base-generated within the (extended) verbal projection. In this paper I argue that the same is not true for predicative adjectives. In line with Baker (2003), I argue that while subjects of adjectives originate below spec,TP, they are not generated within the AP (or aP), but rather in the specifier of a higher functional projection, PredP. I further propose that the semantic relation between an adj…
Ergative Adjectives a Proposition-Selecting Predicates
Cinque (1990) first discussed a class of ergative adjectives, mapping their subject internally. The existence of such adjectives is somewhat surprising, given that the subject of all other adjectives, including adjectival passives, is mapped externally. Establishing what sets apart ergative and unergative adjectives is thus crucial for understanding argument structure in the adjectival domain. However, previous morphological or thematic attempts …
Direct object resumption in Hebrew
Working Memory in the Processing of Long-Distance Dependencies
Active dependency formation in islands
Previous studies concluded that despite the parser's eagerness to resolve filler-gap dependencies, in island configurations it prefers to posit late grammatical gaps over early ungrammatical ones. This study investigates the possibility of resolving filler-gap dependencies inside Hebrew islands. We investigated the acceptability of resumptive pronouns (RPs) in two islands and the sensitivity of on-line dependency formation to the status of those …
A processing-based account of subliminal wh-island effects
Resumptive Pronouns in Language Comprehension and Production
Although the grammatical status of resumptive pronouns varies from one language to the other, these elements occur in spontaneous speech cross-linguistically, giving rise to a long-held intuition that resumption has a processing function, facilitating production and/or comprehension. In this review, I examine the central threads of thought related to resumption and processing and consider the prominent theories and findings that have shaped the d…
Noisy is better than rare
Love thy neighbor
Prediction of successful reanalysis based on eye-blink rate and reading times in sentences with local ambiguity
The present study focuses on individual differences in the ability to recover from an initial misinterpretation during the processing of garden path (GP) sentences with local syntactic ambiguity. The performance of reanalysis in GP sentences is a cognitive task that requires efficient use of executive functions and allocation of working memory resources. In this study, we explored the possible role of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which has long…
The roots of consonant bias in semitic languages
The representation of agreement features in memory is updated during sentence processing
The Relevance of Unaccusativity to Possessive Datives
The possessive dative construction has been widely adopted as an unaccusativity diagnostic (Borer and Grodzinsky 1986). Gafter (2014) casts doubt on the relevance of unaccusativity to the acceptability of the construction. We conducted a series of acceptability judgment experiments to investigate the validity of the possessive dative construction as an unaccusativity diagnostic, controlling for possible confounds such as animacy, definiteness, pl…
Interference in the formation of filler-gap dependencies
We test if fillers in filler-gap dependencies are susceptible to interference. • We find RT evidence for facilitatory interference in ungrammatical sentences. • RT evidence for inhibitory interference in grammatical sentences was not observed. • Inhibitory interference was found in comprehension accuracy. • A model explaining the different findings is proposed. Much research in sentence processing has shown that the formation of syntactic depende…
Representation distortion contributes to agreement attraction in comprehension
Sentence comprehension relies on encoding linguistic items in memory and accessing them subsequently to form linguistic dependencies. This makes processing susceptible to memory interference. Interference, such as the distortion of memory representations or access to irrelevant memory items, can lead to misinterpretation or grammatical errors. Over the years, research on agreement attraction has debated whether this hallmark of memory interferenc…
Linguistics (16 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (8 works) · Language Development and Disorders (7 works) · Hebrew (6 works) · Sentence (6 works)