Kudera, Jacek; Georgis, Philip; Alam, Hasan Md Tusfiqur; Möbius, Bernd; Avgustinova, Tania; Klakow, Dietrich
Comprehension of closely related languages: A visual world eye tracking study
Elektronische Sprachsignalverarbeitung 2022, Tagungsband der 33. Konferenz (Sønderborg), pp. 212-219, 2022.
We present results of an eye tracking experiment which aimed at testing sentence comprehension in closely related Slavic languages. Since none of the participants were trained in translation studies or Slavic linguistics, the study illustrates effects of intercomprehension. The participants were exposed to auditory stimuli in Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Russian accompanied by a visual scene. The analysis of anticipatory eye movements has shown that native speakers of one Slavic language listening to sentences in another Slavic language, turn their attention to and begin fixating on the referent objects as soon as they identify a predicate. This experiment provides evidence for surprisal-based effects in intercomprehension.