Abstract:
This paper examines whether active sentences with different accusative
markers illustrate identical circumstances when processing canonical ordered
sentences and scramble ordered sentences. Specifically, this study
focuses on Double Object Markers (DOM) phenomenon in Sinhala language
with relation to sentence processing. Sinhala language is said to
possess DOM for active sentences consisting of transitive verbs (/Ôa/ and
/va/). Previous studies in experimental linguistics in Sinhala language
have examined the canonical word order in active sentences consisting
of transitive verbs with /Ôa/ accusatives, and have provided evidence that
the canonical word order is decided based on the information provided
by grammatical functions (Subject-Object-Verb). Since /va/ and /Ôa/ accusatives
accompany different verbs, it is important to examine the sentences
with /va/ accusatives in order to ascertain the fact that the canonical
word order is constructed according to the grammatical information (i.e.,
Subject-Object-Verb) in all active sentences consisting of transitive verbs
in the spoken form of the Sinhala language. Thus, this study conducted
two experiments (EX#1 with /va/ accusatives, and EX#2 with /Ôa/ accusatives)
using the nature of scrambling effects to seek whether SOV word
order remains canonical and grammatical functions still provide necessary
information to determine the canonical word order. A series of one-way
ANOVAs was conducted on reaction times and error rates of the responses.
The results show that the canonical order remains Subject-Object-Verb
for active sentences consisting of transitive verbs with /va/ accusatives
which in turn suggest that the information of grammatical function is still
applicable regardless of different accusative types in active sentences of
the Sinhala language.
