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Experimental Studies of Language
19–21 June 2025
Conference for Young Scholars
Research Computing Center, Lomonosov Moscow State University

KEYNOTE

EMAN AL KHALAF

The current research delves into the argument ellipsis (AE) phenomenon in Jordanian Arabic (JA), as exemplified by the omission of a predicate’s argument in a phonetic form but still amenable to semantic interpretation. Although AE has been intensively explored among East Asian languages and Hebrew, it received little academic attention among the different dialects of Arabic. This research presents the outcomes of a large-scale acceptability judgment test with 69 subjects and proves that the rate of acceptance of sentences with elided arguments by the native speakers of JA is as high as with non-elided sentences. Adopting a feature-based account with a Generative Syntax framework, the research proposes using a feature E on the little v head to achieve AE in JA. The research illuminates the interrelationship of AE and the rich agreement morphology in JA and feeds into a live debate in a cross-linguistic setting on how agreement and ellipsis interrelate. The evidence negates generalizations holding rich agreement patterns to block AE and presents instead how complicated morphological structures permit argument ellipsis and do not impede it. The research expands typological awareness of AE to include Semitic languages and sheds new light on syntactic parameters controlling variability of ellipsis effects across different language groups.

ZHENGUANG CAI

While structural priming has been a cornerstone of psycholinguistic research, its broader utility as a methodological tool for investigating linguistic representations across diverse domains remains underexplored. This talk presents a comprehensive overview of how structural priming extends far beyond its traditional role in demonstrating syntactic persistence. I will demonstrate how this experimental paradigm serves as a powerful probe for understanding multiple facets of language processing and representation. The talk will cover five key applications: First, I examine how structural priming illuminates the architecture of syntactic representations and real-time comprehension mechanisms. Second, I discuss its role in revealing the cognitive processes underlying grammatical encoding during language production. Third, I explore how priming effects can map the interconnections within our mental lexicon. Fourth, I show how structural priming provides empirical arbitration for competing syntactic analyses in theoretical linguistics. Finally, I present emerging work using structural priming to investigate linguistic representations in large language models, bridging psycholinguistics and computational approaches. Through these diverse applications, I argue that structural priming offers unique methodological advantages for developing empirically-grounded theories of linguistic representation.

ZHENG SHEN

Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) is a contact language with a dominant English lexifier and is heavily influenced by its substrate languages such as Malay and southern Chinese languages. It allows both wh-fronting and wh-in situ questions which makes it an ideal venue to investigate the nature of both question forming operations and the locality constraints on these operations, e.g. syntactic islands. In this talk I present a series of experimental studies on locality constraints in Colloquial Singapore English. Our findings reveal two sources for wh-island effects, one that restricts wh-movement and one restricts wh-in situ. Only the size of the former is sensitive to d-linking. Our adjunct island experiments, however, produced some puzzling results that I wish to share and discuss. 

Presentations

A. Anisimova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
The effect of linear distance on predicate agreement with quantitative nouns in Russian [in Russian]

D. Antropova1, N. Slioussar1, E. Galperina2, O. Kruchinina2 (1Higher School of Economics, 2IEPhB RAS)
Grammatical gender, number and case in processing: experimental studies on Russian

M. Berkovich, P. Rudnev (Higher School of Economics)
Anaphoric potential of Russian ‘small nominals’ in obligatory-control environments

E. Dorofeeva (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
On deadbeats and drunks: a more fine-grained experimental study of mismatches by gender in in NP-ellipsis with adjectival remnant [in Russian]

I. Gritsenko (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Lexical Distributivity and Variable Subject–Verb Agreement in Russian

A. Gubarenko (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
The Role of Auditory Perception in Reading Disorders in Primary School Children [in Russian]

K. Ivankova (Tomsk State University)
The influence of the visual prime valence and the stimulus reference correlation on the processing of emotional words by men and women [in Russian]

D. Kasenov1, P. Rudnev2 (1New York University, 2Higher School of Economics)
Null and overt subjects in Russian polarity focus: Interactions with ellipsis

A. Krainova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Structural and Case Constraints in Russian Free Relative Clauses

O. Maliavkina (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Genitive of negation with verbs of various classes: an experimental study [in Russian]

M. Osadchaya1, V. Zubov2,3 (1Saint Petersburg State University, 2Higher School of Economics, 3ILS RAS)
Is Silence Really Golden? The Impact of Hesitation Pauses in Teachers’ Speech on Students’ Information Perception [in Russian]

L. Pasko (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Weak Crossover in Russian: Evidence from Forced-Choice Experiment

I. Politova, A. Kriuchenkova, V. Kolesnik, A. Katsnelson, E. Klyshinsky, Yu. Badryzlova (Higher School of Economics)
Lexical predictability: The role of syntactic, semantic, and other factors

A. Prokopeva (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Predicative agreement with coordinated subjects containing ‘not only … but also’ and a personal pronoun [in Russian]

A. Puchkova1, D. Scherbakova2 (1Saint Petersburg State University, 2Gimnasium #642 «Earth and Universe»)
Experimental study of the ways to express clock time in the Russian language [in Russian]

A. Shapovalova, S. Malyutina (Center for Language and Brain, Higher School of Economics)
Individual differences in good–enough language processing: The role of personality traits according to the Big Five Model [in Russian]

S. Shumilova (Higher School of Economics – St. Petersburg)
Processing of Different Grammatical Features by Adolescents: an ERP Study on Russian

K. Sizikova (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
Age-related differences in identification of questions and statements depending on syntactic and prosodic structure of utterance [in Russian]

M. Soloviova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Influence of definiteness on the case of the adjective in Russian paucal constructions [in Russian]

K. Studenikina (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Evaluating linguistic competence of LLMs and human based on Corpus of Variable Agreement in Russian

U. Sudakova (Saint Petersburg State University)
Self-despair… Oops, I mean self-repair in teachers’ speech [in Russian]

V. Vladimirova (Tomsk State University)
Cognitive processing of grammatical case in Russian by bilinguals [in Russian]

M. Zakieva (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
The impact of memory on speech processes in different populations [in Russian]

Posters

A. Aisina, P. Domozhirova (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
The Problem of Using Oral Speech Corpora for Diagnosing Mental Disorders (On the Material of Dementia)

E. Astaykina (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Variation of agreement in secondary predication: an experimental study of gender, number, and case factors [in Russian]

D. Balba, D. Isakov, A. Komratova (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
Computer tools in mental disorders diagnostics by oral speech [in Russian]

L. Brezhneva (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Case variation of adjectives in depictive secondary predication [in Russian]

S. Bukharina (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Subject-Verb Agreement with Conjoined Subjects: Non-Constituent vs. Constituent Coordination – An Experimental Study [in Russian]

E. Gridneva (Higher School of Economics)
Politeness strategies of Russian school students: Quantitative approach to qualitative data. Pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 communication analysis. [in Russian]

A. Ivanenko, N. Slioussar (Higher School of Economics)
The influence of gender and psychological characteristics of participants on their affective measures of Russian nouns [in Russian]

A. Kolesnikova, Yu. Nikolaeva (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Synchronization of gesture and prosody in people with aphasia [in Russian]

V. Kolesnikova (Department of Youth Policy and Implementation of Social Development Programmes of Altai Region) Actualization of commenting intention in dialogical speech: socio-age aspect [in Russian]

A. Krainova1, V. Deretić2 (1Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2Higher School of Economics)
Person-Number Agreement in Serbian: The Role of the Construction Type and Word Order

E. Kropacheva (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Attitudes towards code-switching among early and late Russian-Spanish bilinguals [in Russian]

K. Lesniak (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
The Problem of Choosing a Noun Form When Composing Coordinating and Incoordinating Modifiers in Russian: An Experimental Study [in Russian]

M. Loshanina (Irkutsk State University)
Vse-taki in polymarker contexts: experimental data analysis [in Russian]

A. Lysenkova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
Interaction of the Genitive of Negation and the Aspectual Characteristics of the Predicate [in Russian]

A. Markarova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
The choice of noun form and predicative number agreement in constructions with coordinated modifiers and the influence of referential status of noun phrase [in Russian]

A. Obolashvili (Saint Petersburg State University)
Your eyes betray you!: an eye-tracking study of perception of spatial orientation markers [in Russian]

E. Patrakova, A. Mikulinskiy (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
Significant Features for Diagnosing of Inaccurate Information in Speech

Y. Rabinovich, K. Ziyadanova, V. Lemskaya, D. Tokmashev (Tomsk State Pedagogical University)
An experimental comparative ultrasound study of vocalism in the Altai and Mongolia Kazakhs varieties [in Russian]

R. Rodionov (Higher School of Economics – St. Petersburg)
Pugacheva meets the Binding Theory: proxy readings in Russian

Yu. Sinitsyna (Lomonosov Moscow State University)
About forty respondents filled out the questionnaire: variability of predicative agreement with quantitative constructions with approximative inversion (an experimental study) [in Russian]

V. Smirnova (Higher School of Economics)
Factors Affecting the Preservation of Historical Alternations in Modern Russian

K. Untila (Higher School of Economics – Nizhny Novgorod)
Peculiarities of using the category of evidentiality in a group of Tatar–Russian bilinguals [in Russian]