Table 1.
Verbs and nouns used in the experimental sentences and verb syntactic preference values
| Verb (E translation) | DO‐preference previous study (how normal?) | DO‐preference posttest (sentence cotinuation) | Preference based on pretest | Preference based on posttest | Preposition | Themes (E translation) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bereiten (prepare) | 0.31 | 0.51 | PO | DO | für | Mahlzeit (meal) |
| Empfang (reception) | ||||||
| Űberraschung (surprise) | ||||||
| Suchen (search) | 0.36 | 0.45 | PO | PO | für | Aufgabe (task) |
| Geschenk (gift) | ||||||
| Haus (house) | ||||||
| Schlachten (slaughter) | 0.38 | 0.32 | PO | PO | für | Schwein (pig) |
| Ziege (goat) | ||||||
| Huhn (chicken) | ||||||
| Bewachen (guard) | 0.39 | 0.41 | PO | PO | für | Schatz (treasure) |
| Schloss (castle) | ||||||
| Gefangenen (prisoner) | ||||||
| Zahlen (pay) | 0.41 | 0.55 | PO | DO | für | Eintritt (entrance fee) |
| Gebühr (fee) | ||||||
| Lösegeld (ransom) | ||||||
| Deuten (interpret) | 0.42 | 0.47 | PO | PO | für | Wetter (weather) |
| Traum (dream) | ||||||
| Zeichen (sign) | ||||||
| Reservieren (book) | 0.43 | 0.45 | PO | PO | für | Tisch (table) |
| Ticket (ticket) | ||||||
| Platz (place) | ||||||
| Verkaufen (sell) | 0.45 | 0.7 | PO | DO | an | Goldfisch (goldfish) |
| Blume (flower) | ||||||
| Buch (book) | ||||||
| Liefern (deliver) | 0.55 | 0.55 | DO | DO | an | Paket (package) |
| Vorrat (supplies) | ||||||
| Essen (food) | ||||||
| Übergeben (hand over) | 0.61 | 0.8 | DO | DO | an | Belohnung (reward) |
| Rose (rose) | ||||||
| Rechnung (bill) | ||||||
| Reparieren (repair) | 0.63 | 0.42 | DO | PO | für | Dach (roof) |
| Waschmaschine (washing machine) | ||||||
| Auto (car) | ||||||
| Leihen (lend) | 0.64 | 0.96 | DO | DO | an | Fahrrad (bike) |
| Jacke (coat) | ||||||
| Schirm (umbrella) | ||||||
| Verabreichen (administer) | 0.68 | 0.98 | DO | DO | an | Tablette (pill) |
| Medizin (medicine) | ||||||
| Spritze (injection) | ||||||
| Reichen (hand sth to so.) | 0.69 | 0.92 | DO | DO | an | Koffer (suitcase) |
| Salz (salt) | ||||||
| Dose (can) | ||||||
| Servieren (serve) | 0.72 | 0.71 | DO | DO | für | Kaffee (coffee) |
| Wein (wine) | ||||||
| Speise (dish) | ||||||
| Beschreiben (describe) | 0.74 | 0.78 | DO | DO | für | Problem (problem) |
| Spiel (game) | ||||||
| Aussicht (view) |
In combination with the potential nouns for the agent and recipient (man, woman, boy, girl) these formed the different sentences. The values in the third column were used to calculate verb based syntactic surprisal effects for the fMRI regressor (see Results 3.2.4 section). Note that the values for the verb preference differ (different preference) between the pre and the posttest (column 2 and 3) in a few of the cases. For the analysis we used column 3, which reflects the verb preferences of the group of participants we tested.