Real-time thematic role assignment in Pitjantjatjara: an eye-tracking study

Languages differ in how core argument roles are marked and in the cues guiding their real-time comprehension. This study investigated thematic role assignment in Pitjantjatjara–an Australian Pama-Nyungan ergative language with free word-order. Using visual world eye-tracking, we analysed whether a noun phrase’s humanness, case marking and position in the sentence guide its interpretation as agent or patient of an event. Confirmatory analyses indicated that these properties do not affect thematic role processing at the noun phrase itself. Exploratory analyses suggested that transitivity expectations play an important role. When the visual scene depicted more typical human agents, the influence of linguistic factors was observed later in the trial: speakers committed to the thematic role faster when all cues pointed toward the same interpretation. However, visual events that violated expectations (animals/inanimate objects acting on humans) strongly attracted participants' visual attention, attenuating the influence of linguistic input.