In two eye-tracking pilot studies during reading in German, we investigated real-time processing of context formality-register congruence and subject-verb morphosyntactic congruence. While it is known that grammatical violations are rapidly processed, context-related aspects have received less attention. Social-context information, such as formality-register congruence, may indeed matter for the understanding of variability in language processing. We intended to address whether formality information is integrated in real-time sentence comprehension, and to explore whether formality-register congruence processing and morphosyntactic congruence processing rely on shared or distinct mechanisms and representations.
In both pilots, eight adult participants read pairs of context sentences conveying a formal or informal situation, followed by a target sentence containing a high- or low-register verb (e.g., Engl. transl. “The drunkard defamed the cab driver” vs. “The drunkard blew the whistle on the cab driver”) matching or mismatching context formality. The second pilot additionally manipulated morphosyntactic congruence within the target sentence, with a subject-verb match (as in the examples above) or mismatch (e.g., Engl. transl. “The drunkard *defame the cab driver”; “The drunkard *blow the whistle on the cab driver”). Linear mixed models revealed main effects of formality-register congruence in both pilots. In the register-only pilot, longer verb total times were observed for mismatches (vs. matches, as expected), and for higher average target sentence formality ratings (independently obtained). A less straightforward pattern emerged in the register-by-morphosyntax pilot, with longer total times for matches (vs. mismatches), as opposed to an effect of subject-verb morphosyntactic congruence in the predicted direction (longer times for mismatches vs. matches), suggesting some interference between the two processes. Effects of register and morphosyntactic congruence also emerged at the post-verbal object region. While further investigation with a larger sample size is ongoing, these pilot data suggest that register and morphosyntactic congruence processing may rely on partially shared cognitive mechanisms.