Chapter 11 discusses some task-dependent effects on word order preference. Different tasks activate different aspects of cognitive processes in the brain. We show that the picture–sentence matching task facilitates the processing of SVO in comparison with the other orders in Kaqchikel, at least partially because of the saliency of agentive concepts accelerating memory retrieval. We also show that Kaqchikel speakers who use Spanish in daily life more tend to process Kaqchikel sentences in the SVO and VSO orders more quickly.

Chapter 6 reports on an ERP experiment with a picture–sentence matching task, in which a picture was presented before the corresponding sentence. The target sentences used in this experiment were the same as those used in the experiment reported in Chapter 5, i.e., transitive sentences with thematically reversible agents and patients, arranged into four word orders: VOS, VSO, SVO, and OVS. The results of this experiment also demonstrated that SVO elicited a P600 compared to VOS, and that VSO elicited a similar posterior positivity, relative to VOS. The results of the two ERP experiments combined clearly indicate that VOS is the syntactically simplest and easiest-to-process word order of the grammatically possible ones in Kaqchikel, which is in line with our previous findings, described in Chapters 3 and 4. In short, Chapters 3 to 6 present data showing that a VOS preference was observed in Kaqchikel sentence comprehension, which provides empirical support for the IGV.