Cognitive dynamics of verb-particle constructions: an eye-tracking study on phrasal verbs and verb-preposition combinations

This study investigates the cognitive processing of verb-particle constructions (VPCs) using eye-tracking data to explore how English native speakers process different types of the sequence noun phrase (NP)-verb-particle-NP during reading tasks. While previous research has focused on phrasal verbs, our study extends this examination to include patterns with prepositions, aiming to identify distinct cognitive engagement patterns and processing efficiencies associated with each. We employed the Provo Corpus to analyze eye movements while participants read sentences containing these constructions, focusing on metrics such as first fixation duration, gaze duration, go-past times, and total reading times. Our findings indicate similarities in the lexical verbs, and significant differences in particles, indicating how these two types of constructions are processed, with phrasal verbs sometimes processed more efficiently than the prepositional counterparts. This suggests that phrasal verbs might be more deeply entrenched in the linguistic repertoire of native speakers, possibly functioning as single lexical units. However, larger and more systematically controlled item sets are needed to test the generality of this interpretation. This research contributes to the understanding of complex structures processing and the cognitive mechanisms that support it, offering insights that could influence linguistic theory and language education.