Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque

Published on 12th February, 2026.

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ristic, Bojana, Molinaro, Nicola, Mancini, Simona
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/77755
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77755
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ambiguity resolution
basque
feature maintenance
morphosyntax
subject-verb agreement
id ES_0095d483dc8bc7e9bbbec22d90b73dbb
oai_identifier_str oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/77755
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from BasqueRistic, BojanaMolinaro, NicolaMancini, Simonaambiguity resolutionbasquefeature maintenancemorphosyntaxsubject-verb agreementPublished on 12th February, 2026.In this paper, we investigate whether number is actively maintained as part of matrix subject-verb dependency establishment, and whether it is active enough to be used to resolve temporary number ambiguity of an interpolated noun. In a visual world paradigm, we tested whether number-ambiguous Basque nouns within embedded relative clauses can be disambiguated by the number of the matrix subject-verb dependency actively maintained over them. We manipulated the number of the matrix subject (singular/plural), and measured the proportion of looks toward singular/plural images in the moment when the number-ambiguous noun is heard (and still not disambiguated). The analysis showed that the proportion of looks followed the matrix subject number, as the plural bias increases significantly in the plural matrix subject condition, implying active maintenance of the number feature. These findings add to the literature on the content of the maintained representation in subject-verb dependency establishment, showing that number information is actively maintained, and they don't align with cue-based sentence comprehension models that presume matrix verb maintenance in an inactive, out-of-focus state. We also demonstrate that the parser uses available morphosyntactic information of items kept active in working memory in order to resolve temporary ambiguity.The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This research was supported by the Basque government through the PRE_2018_2_0074 grant and the BERC 2022-2025 program, by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University, (grants PID2022-136991NB-I00; PCI2022-135031-2; PDC2022-133917-I00; RTI2018-096311-B-I0), as well as by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation CEX2020-001010/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.Frontiers Media202620262026info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10810/77755reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigacióninstname:Universidad del País VascoInglésinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/PRE_2018_2_0074/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/BERC2022-2025/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PID2022-136991NB-I00/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PCI2022-135031-2/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PDC2022-133917-I00/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/RTI2018-096311-B-I0/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/SEV-CEX2020-001010/https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/language-sciences/articles/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess© 2026 Ristic, Molinaro and Mancini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/777552026-06-18T09:23:17Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
title Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
spellingShingle Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
Ristic, Bojana
ambiguity resolution
basque
feature maintenance
morphosyntax
subject-verb agreement
title_short Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
title_full Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
title_fullStr Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
title_full_unstemmed Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
title_sort Number maintenance in subject-verb agreement: evidence from Basque
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ristic, Bojana
Molinaro, Nicola
Mancini, Simona
author Ristic, Bojana
author_facet Ristic, Bojana
Molinaro, Nicola
Mancini, Simona
author_role author
author2 Molinaro, Nicola
Mancini, Simona
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv ambiguity resolution
basque
feature maintenance
morphosyntax
subject-verb agreement
topic ambiguity resolution
basque
feature maintenance
morphosyntax
subject-verb agreement
description Published on 12th February, 2026.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2026
2026
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77755
url http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77755
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/PRE_2018_2_0074/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/BERC2022-2025/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PID2022-136991NB-I00/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PCI2022-135031-2/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/PDC2022-133917-I00/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/RTI2018-096311-B-I0/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/SEV-CEX2020-001010/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/language-sciences/articles/
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Frontiers Media
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Frontiers Media
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
instname:Universidad del País Vasco
instname_str Universidad del País Vasco
reponame_str Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
collection Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869402511761211392
score 15,811543

Similares en LA Referencia