Constructional associations trump lexical associations in processing valency coercion

Abstract The paper investigates the interaction of lexical and constructional meaning in valency coercion processing, effect (in)compatibility between verb construction for its successful resolution (Perek, Florent & Martin Hilpert. 2014. Constructional tolerance: Cross-linguistic differences acceptability non-conventional uses constructions. Constructions Frames 6(2). 266–304; Yoon, Soyeon. 2019. Coercion language change: A usage-based approach. Linguistic Research 36(1). 111–139). We present an online experiment on (the first one Italian), by means a semantic priming protocol inspired Johnson, Matt A. Adele E. Goldberg. 2013. Evidence automatic accessing meaning: Jabberwocky sentences prime associated verbs. Language Cognitive Processes 28(10). 1439–1452. test effects with decision task which presents different target verbs preceded instances four Italian argument structure constructions, serve as primes. Three types target: associate (LA), (CA), unrelated (U) LAs are semantically similar to main sentence, whereas CAs prototypical construction. U mean comparison two categories interest. Results confirm that processing requires integration both semantics. Moreover, compatibility is also found influence resolution. Specifically, primary independent from compatibility. secondary LA found, suggests contribution semantics – especially low-compatibility coinages.