Eye-tracking context formality effects in German and Japanese sentence processing.

ABSTRACT: Context information can rapidly affect language processing. Yet, whether this holds for social information like respect and formality (e.g., talking to a teacher vs. student), and across languages adhering differently to social hierarchy (German vs. Japanese) is unclear. We manipulated (in)congruence of formality (match vs. mismatch) in German and formality-style (matching or mismatching social respect) in Japanese. Participants encountered context-target sentence pairs (mis)matching in formality (German), or within-sentence formality-style (mis)match (Japanese). For Japanese, another factor 'style' (exalted vs. humble) created this mismatch (e.g., exalted style matches actions by a teacher but not student). For German, (in)congruence between subject and verb inflection served as a morphos

SUBMITTER: Pescuma VN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12711875 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature