scholarly journals Efeitos do status argumental e de segmentação no processamento de sintagmas preposicionais em português brasileiro

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maia
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
First Pass ◽  
On Line ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
General Preference ◽  
Implicit Prosody Hypothesis

A questionnaire study and a self paced reading experiment investigate the off-line and on-line comprehension of adjunct and argument prepositional phrases (PP) in Brazilian Portuguese. The first study compares NP-attached adjunct and argument PPs and VP-attached adjunct and argument PPs and show a general preference for argument PPs in both cases. The second study presents an experimental design crossing the argument status of PPs (argument or adjunct) and the segmentation type of the sentences that contain the PPs (short or long). Results do not indicate differences in reading times (RT) between adjunct and argument PPs in the first pass of the parser, in contrast with models of sentence processing that predict a rapid initial access to lexical information. Nonetheless, RT differences between adjunct and argument PPs are found in a garden-path configuration, something which is attributed to the reanalysis stage. Segmentation effects are also found and discussed with relation to the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis (Fodor, 1998; 2002).

scholarly journals Plausibility and recovery from garden paths in second language sentence processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEAH ROBERTS ◽  
CLAUDIA FELSER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
On Line

ABSTRACTIn this study, the influence of plausibility information on the real-time processing of locally ambiguous (“garden path”) sentences in a nonnative language is investigated. Using self-paced reading, we examined how advanced Greek-speaking learners of English and native speaker controls read sentences containing temporary subject–object ambiguities, with the ambiguous noun phrase being either semantically plausible or implausible as the direct object of the immediately preceding verb. Besides providing evidence for incremental interpretation in second language processing, our results indicate that the learners were more strongly influenced by plausibility information than the native speaker controls in their on-line processing of the experimental items. For the second language learners an initially plausible direct object interpretation lead to increased reanalysis difficulty in “weak” garden-path sentences where the required reanalysis did not interrupt the current thematic processing domain. No such evidence of on-line recovery was observed, in contrast, for “strong” garden-path sentences that required more substantial revisions of the representation built thus far, suggesting that comprehension breakdown was more likely here.

scholarly journals Quantifying individual differences in native and nonnative sentence processing

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ian Cunnings ◽  
Hiroki Fujita
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Reading Speed ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Nonnative Language ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Research in sentence processing has increasingly examined the role of individual differences in language comprehension. In work on native and nonnative sentence processing, examining individual differences can contribute crucial insight into theoretical debates about the extent to which nativelike processing is possible in a nonnative language. Despite this increased interest in individual differences, whether commonly used psycholinguistic tasks can reliably measure individual differences between participants has not been systematically examined. As a preliminary examination of this issue in nonnative processing, we report a self-paced reading experiment on garden-path sentences in native and nonnative comprehension. At the group level we replicated previously observed findings in native and nonnative speakers. However, while we found that our self-paced reading experiment was a reliable way of assessing individual differences in overall reading speed and comprehension accuracy, it did not consistently measure individual differences in the size of garden-path effects in our sample (N = 64 native and 64 nonnative participants, and 24 experimental items). These results suggest that before individual differences in sentence processing can be meaningfully assessed, the question of whether commonly used tasks can consistently measure individual differences requires systematic examination.

scholarly journals Recovery from misinterpretations during online sentence processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Maria Blott ◽  
Jennifer M Rodd ◽  
Fernanda Ferreira ◽  
Jane Warren
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Adult Readers ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Additional Processing ◽  
On Line

Misinterpretations during language comprehension are common. The ability to recover from such processing difficulties is therefore crucial for successful day-to-day communication. The present study investigated the outcome of comprehension processes and on-line reading behaviour when misinterpretations occurred. Although group-level effects of reinterpretation on sentence comprehension and on-line processing are of great theoretical interest, individual differences in the recovery from processing difficulty are of particular practical relevance. Even adult readers vary considerably in their “lexical expertise”, their knowledge of word forms and meanings and their experience with written material. We therefore also investigated the effect of individual differences in lexical expertise on processes related to the recovery from misinterpretations. Ninety-six adult participants read “garden-path” sentences in which an ambiguous word was disambiguated towards an unexpected meaning (e.g. The ball was crowded), while their eye movements were monitored. A Meaning Coherence Judgement task additionally required them to decide whether or not each sentence made sense. Results suggested that readers did not always engage in reinterpretation processes but instead followed a “good enough” processing strategy. Successful detection of a violation to sentence coherence and associated reinterpretation processes also required additional processing time compared to sentences that did not induce a misinterpretation. Although these reinterpretation-related processing costs were relatively stable across individuals, there was some evidence to suggest that readers with greater lexical expertise benefited from greater sensitivity to the disambiguating information, and were able to flexibly adapt their on-line reading behaviour to recover from misinterpretations more efficiently.

Effects of contrastive focus on lexical predictability during sentence reading: The case of not only. . .but also constructions

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-186
Author(s):  
Matthew W Lowder ◽  
Gwynna Ryan ◽  
Jaclyn Opie ◽  
Emily Kaminsky
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
First Pass ◽  
Focus Condition ◽  
Linguistic Focus ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
Online Sentence Processing

Previous research suggests that language comprehenders are sensitive to the presence of focus-sensitive particles—words like only and not that are effective at marking the focus of the sentence. In addition to signalling linguistic focus, these words can also establish a semantic contrast between the focused element and an alternate set. For example, the phrase not only the bride places linguistic focus on the bride and may also prompt comprehenders to anticipate a set of upcoming entities that stand in semantic contrast to the bride. We tested this possibility in an eyetracking-while-reading experiment that systematically crossed structure (focus vs. noun-phrase coordination) with predictability of an upcoming target noun (predictable vs. unpredictable). Whereas first-pass reading time showed a robust predictability effect for the coordination condition, the effect was eliminated for the focus condition. Later eyetracking measures revealed main effects of both predictability and syntactic structure. Overall, the results suggest that language comprehenders rapidly make use of the cue not only and may use this cue to begin anticipating a set of upcoming sentence continuations during online sentence processing.

scholarly journals Event-duration semantics in online sentence processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Thiago Oliveira da Motta Sampaio ◽  
Aniela Improta França
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Average Duration ◽  
Latin Square ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Event Duration ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Online Sentence Processing

Several experiments in Psycholinguistics found evidences of Iterative Coercion, an effect related to the reanalysis of punctual events used in durative contexts triggering an iterative meaning. We argue that this effect is not related to aspectual features, and that event-duration semantics is accessed during Sentence Processing. We ran a self-paced reading experiment in Brazilian Portuguese whose sentences contain events with an average duration of a few minutes. These sentences were inserted in durative contexts that became the experiment’s conditions following a Latin Square design: control condition (minutes), subtractive (seconds), iterative (hours) and habitual (days). Higher RTs were measured at the critical segments of all experimental conditions, except for the habitual context. The results corroborated our hypothesis while defying the psychological reality of habitual coercion. To better observe the habitual coercion condition, we now present a reanalysis of Sampaio et al. (2014) data. The present analysis confirms the results of our tests.***Semântica da duração de eventos no processamento online de sentenças***Diversos experimentos psicolinguísticos encontraram evidências da CoerçãoIterativa, um efeito relacionado à reanálise de eventos pontuais usados emcontextos durativos, que resultam numa leitura iterativa. Nesse trabalho argumentamos que esse efeito não é relacionado a propriedades aspectuais e que a semântica da duração dos eventos é acessada online. Aplicamos um experimento de leitura auto-monitorada em Português Brasileiro, cujas sentenças contém eventos com duração média de alguns minutos. Estas sentenças foram inseridas em quatro condições durativas, seguindo uma distribuição fatorial (quadrado latino):condição controle (minutos), subtrativa (segundos), iterativa (horas) e habitual (dias). Nossos resultados indicam maiores RTs nos segmentos críticos das condições experimentais, exceto em relação a condição habitual. Esses resultados confirmam nossa hipótese, porém, põem em cheque a realidade psicológica da coerção habitual. Assim, para melhor observar os efeitos dessa condição, procedemos uma reanálise dos dados de Sampaio et al. (2014), que finalmente veio confirmar o resultado de nosso teste.

The On-Line Resolution of the Sentence Complement/Relative Clause Ambiguity: Evidence from Spanish

2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Demestre ◽  
José E. García-Albea
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
On Line ◽  
Verbal Mood

Abstract. Two self-paced reading experiments investigated syntactic ambiguity resolution in Spanish. The experiments examined the way in which Spanish subjects initially interpret sentences that are temporarily ambiguous between a sentence complement and a relative clause interpretation. Experiment 1 examined whether the sentence complement preference found in English is observed in Spanish speaking subjects. In Experiment 2, verbal mood was manipulated in order to study the influence of verb-specific information on sentence processing. Since subcategorization for a subjunctive complement clause is generally assumed to be a lexical property of some verbs, the manipulation of the mood of the embedded verb affords us an interesting and novel way to examine the influence of lexical information on syntactic ambiguity resolution. Experiment 1 showed that Spanish speakers initially interpret the ambiguous that-clause as a sentence complement. Experiment 2 showed that verb-specific information, in particular, the information that specifies that a verb subcategorizes for a subjunctive complement, is accessed and used rapidly and affects the ambiguity resolution process. The results are discussed in relation to current models of sentence processing.

Ambiguity resolution in sentence processing: the role of lexical and contextual information

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
DESPINA PAPADOPOULOU ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Context Information ◽  
On Line ◽  
Thematic Information ◽  
Reading Experiment

This study investigates how the parser employs thematic and contextual information in resolving temporary ambiguities during sentence processing. We report results from a sentence-completion task and from a self-paced reading experiment with native speakers of Greek examining two constructions under different referential context conditions: relative clauses (RCs) preceded by complex noun phrases with genitives, [NP1+NP2Gen], and RCs preceded by complex noun phrases containing prepositional phrases, [NP1+PP[P NP2]]. We found different attachment preferences for these two constructions, a high (NP1) preference for RCs with genitive antecedents and a low (NP2) preference for RCs with PP antecedents. Moreover, referential context information was found to modulate RC attachment differently in the two experimental tasks. We interpret these findings from the perspective of modular theories of sentence processing and argue that on-line ambiguity resolution relies primarily on grammatical and lexical-thematic information, and makes use of referential context information only as a secondary resource.

scholarly journals On-line processing of English which-questions by children and adults: a visual world paradigm study

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARLA CONTEMORI ◽  
MATTHEW CARLSON ◽  
THEODOROS MARINIS
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Initial Preference ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
On Line ◽  
English Speaking

AbstractPrevious research has shown that children demonstrate similar sentence processing reflexes to those observed in adults, but they have difficulties revising an erroneous initial interpretation when they process garden-path sentences, passives, and wh-questions. We used the visual-world paradigm to examine children's use of syntactic and non-syntactic information to resolve syntactic ambiguity by extending our understanding of number features as a cue for interpretation to which-subject and which-object questions. We compared children's and adults’ eye-movements to understand how this information shapes children's commitment to and revision of possible interpretations of these questions. The results showed that English-speaking adults and children both exhibit an initial preference to interpret an object-which question as a subject question. While adults quickly override this preference, children take significantly longer, showing an overall processing difficulty for object questions. Crucially, their recovery from an initially erroneous interpretation is speeded when disambiguating number agreement features are present.

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