scholarly journals Syntactic ambiguity resolution and the prosodic foot: Cross-language differences

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
CONRAD PERRY ◽  
MAN-KIT KAN ◽  
STEPHEN MATTHEWS ◽  
RICHARD KWOK-SHING WONG
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Silent Reading ◽  
Strong Preference ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Mandarin Speakers ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Neutral Conditions ◽  
Alternative Structure

In this study we examined syntactic ambiguity resolution in two different Chinese languages, Cantonese and Mandarin, which are relatively similar grammatically but very different phonologically. We did this using four-character sentences that could be read using two, two-syllable sequences (2-2) or a structure where the first syllable could be read by itself. The results showed that when both potential readings were semantically congruent, Mandarin speakers had a strong preference for the 2-2 structure and they preferred that structure much more than Cantonese speakers did. We attribute this to Mandarin having a more dominant bisyllabic prosodic foot than Cantonese. When the 2-2 meaning was semantically incongruent, however, the alternative structure was preferred by both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. Overall, the results suggest that, in silent reading tasks and semantically neutral conditions, the prosodic foot is generated automatically and can affect syntactic choices when ambiguity arises.

scholarly journals Implicit prosody and contextual bias in silent reading

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate McCurdy ◽  
Gerrit Kentner ◽  
Shravan Vasishth
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Silent Reading ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
First Pass ◽  
Implicit Prosody ◽  
Main Effects

Eye-movement research on implicit prosody has found effects of lexical stress on syntactic ambiguity resolution, suggesting that metrical well-formedness constraints interact with syntactic category assignment. Building on these findings, the present eyetracking study investigates whether contextual bias can modulate the effects of metrical structure on syntactic ambiguity resolution in silent reading. Contextual bias and potential stress-clash in the ambiguous region were crossed in a 2 2 design. Participants read biased context sentences followed by temporarily ambiguous test sentences. In the three-word ambiguous region, main effects of lexical stress were dominant, while early effects of context were absent. Potential stress clash yielded a significant increase in first-pass regressions and re-reading probability across the three words. In the disambiguating region, the disambiguating word itself showed increased processing difficulty (lower skipping and increased re-reading probability) when the disambiguation engendered a stress clash configuration, while the word immediately following showed main effects of context in those same measures. Taken together, effects of lexical stress upon eye movements were swift and pervasive across first-pass and second-pass measures, while effects of context were relatively delayed. These results indicate a strong role for implicit meter in guiding parsing, one that appears insensitive to higher-level constraints. Our findings are problematic for two classes of models, the two-stage garden-path model and the constraint-based competition-integration model, but can be explained by a variation on the two-stage model, the unrestricted race model.

Evidence against competition during syntactic ambiguity resolution

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger P.G. van Gompel ◽  
Martin J. Pickering ◽  
Jamie Pearson ◽  
Simon P. Liversedge
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution

On the impact of L2 speech rhythm on syntactic ambiguity resolution

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Paula Roncaglia-Denissen ◽  
Maren Schmidt-Kassow ◽  
Angela Heine ◽  
Sonja A Kotz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
First Language ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Early Learners ◽  
The Impact

In an event-related potential (ERP) study we investigated the role of age of acquisition (AoA) on the use of second language rhythmic properties during syntactic ambiguity resolution. Syntactically ambiguous sentences embedded in rhythmically regular and irregular contexts were presented to Turkish early and late second language (L2) learners of German and to German monolingual controls. Regarding rhythmic properties, Turkish is syllable-timed and prefers the iamb as its metric foot, while German is stress-timed, relying on the trochee. To utilize rhythm during the processing of syntactic ambiguity in L2, Turkish early and late L2 learners of German must master different rhythmic properties than in their first language. ERPs reveal a reduction in the P600 response to object-first sentences presented in rhythmically regular, but not in rhythmically irregular contexts for early learners and monolinguals only. No such effect was found for late L2 learners. Results indicate an interactive use of rhythmic information during the processing of syntactic ambiguity by monolinguals and early learners. Further, data from late L2 learners suggest that the acquisition of rhythmic properties may have to occur in a sensitive learning period.

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