Psycholinguistics Part 8: Sentence Processing Slides PDF

Psycholinguistics Part 8 [Sentence Processing] 1 Sentence Processing: It refers to the process of building a syntactic structure for the sentences heard or read. 2  Sentence processing starts as soon as possibl...

Psycholinguistics Part 8 [Sentence Processing] 1 Sentence Processing: It refers to the process of building a syntactic structure for the sentences heard or read. 2  Sentence processing starts as soon as possible. An example: for the sentence The poor woman needs help, as soon as we hear the word the, we expect the next word to be a noun or an adjective. Upon hearing poor, we update our expectations about what comes next (e.g. the old woman, the old car, etc. ), and this process of building a syntactic structure continues till the utterance finishes. 3  The reconstruction of the syntactic structure of a sentence that is heard or read is referred to as syntactic parsing. If all linguistic forms are unambiguous, processing sentences would be easy; a syntactic structure is updated as a new word comes in. Processing sentences is not easy because lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity exist. 4  This presentation basically considers several types of structural ambiguity and the problems they cause to sentence processing. Structural ambiguity occurs when a string of words has two or more different possible parses resulting from different possible syntactic structures. 5 Types of Structural Ambiguity: 1. Temporary Ambiguity 2. The Garden Path Effect 3. Global Ambiguity 6 1. Temporary Ambiguity: In this type of ambiguity a sentence is ambiguous only temporarily, up until we hear a word. Example: when hearing the word the, a listener expects the next word to be a noun or an adjective. When hearing the adjective rich after that, we encounter the first ambiguity; rich could be an adjective, as in the rich man, or a noun, as in the rich have to help the poor. 7  When hearing the noun man, we can determine that rich is an adjective. Now man is ambiguous between being a noun, as in the rich man has helped me, or an adjective, as in the rich man doctor died. Finally, the ambiguity is resolved when we hear has.  The rich man has helped me. 8  Think: Could you give more examples of temporary ambiguity? - He has a car. - He has left early. 9 2. The Garden Path Effect: Garden path sentences are temporarily ambiguous and initially interpreted to have a different syntactic structure than they turn out to have. These mistakes in syntactic parsing are called garden path effects because the syntax of the sentence has led the comprehender down the garden path to a spot where they can not go further and must return back. 10 Example: 1. While Mary was mending the sock fell off her lap. 2. While Mary was mending the sock it fell off her lap. In (1), when reading till the sock, we are more likely to interpret the sock as the direct object of the verb mending. However, at the verb fell, we notice that that this parse could not have been correct, and we have to go back and reanalyze the string, so the sock turns to be the subject of the clause the sock fell off her lap.  See the difference between (1) and (2). Does your initial syntactic parsing for (2) turn to be wrong? 11 Why are we led down the garden path in (1)? The explanation depends on both: a. The syntactic structure: the verb mending can be transitive (2) as well as intransitive (1). b. The particular lexical items it contains: the sock may be mended; (3) is not a garden path sentence. 3. While Mary was translating the sock fell off her lap. 12 More difficult garden path sentences: Some difficult garden path sentences remain unparsable for some readers. That is, some garden path sentences are so difficult that some people never figure out the correct structure and meaning, as in (4). 4. The horse raced past the barn fell. 13 Before proceeding, There is a kind of structure referred to as a reduced relative clause, where a relative pronoun and a form of verb to be undergo ellipsis, and the main verb after be turns to be Ving (5) or V3 (6). 5. The man who is standing there is her husband. 6. The car which was stolen is my neighbor’s14  Back to (4): 4. The horse raced past the barn fell. If we interpret the sentence as being about the horse racing past the barn, the sentence seems ungrammatical. 15  This kind of sentence contains a reduced a relative clause. 5. The horse which was raced past the barn fell. So, raced is not the main clause verb, but the verb of the reduced relative clause. The meaning here is that someone was racing it past the barn. 16 Compare: a. The horse raced past the barn fell. b. The woman driven to the hospital fainted. Both sentences contain a reduced relative clause, but why is (a) harder to parse than (b)? 17  The answer lies in the lexical items: raced and driven. - The simple past and past participle forms of race are identical: race-raced- raced. - The simple past and past participle forms of drive are different: drive- drove-driven.  Thus the verb raced may be interpreted as the verb of the main clause and the verb of the reduced relative clause, but driven may not 18 3. Global Ambiguity: in this case, ambiguity is not resolved by the end of the utterance. Without additional context (such as intonation or preceding/following sentences), there is no way to determine the intended structure and interpretation of globally ambiguous sentences, like (5). 5. The police saw the man with the binoculars. 19 Discuss ambiguity in (5).  The First Interpretation: The police used the binoculars to see the man. Thus, the PP with the binoculars modifies the VP saw the man.  This corresponds to the structure in (6).  The Second Interpretation: The man has binoculars and the police saw him. Accordingly, the PP with the binoculars modifies the NP the man.  This corresponds to the structure in (6). 20 6. 21 7. 22 Factors contributing to how we interpret globally ambiguous sentences: a. The choice of lexical items; when changing the man to the dog, we tend to interpret it to mean that the police used the binoculars to see the dog. 8. The police saw the dog with the binoculars. 23 b. The preceding context: If sentence (8) is preceded by a context of a dog stealing binoculars from someone, we tend to interpret (8) to mean that the police saw the dog who was having binoculars even though this is unlikely. 24 c. Intonation: Many spoken ambiguous sentences can be disambiguated through intonation. An Example: Sentence (9) is ambiguous. It can mean either: (i) that Jack and Paul will be invited or else Mary will be ([Jack and Paul] or [Mary]), or (ii) that Jack will be invited and so will either be Paul or Mary ([Jack] and [Paul or Mary]). 9. I will invite Jack and Paul or Mary. 25  Depending on the pronunciation, listeners will favor one interpretation over the other; - (9) can be said with a prosodic break after Paul, as illustrated in (10a). This corresponds to the first interpretation. - On the other hand, it can be said with a prosodic break after Jack, as in (10b), which leads to the second interpretation. 10. a. I will invite [Jack and Paul] or [Mary]. b. I will invite [Jack] and [Paul or Mary]. 26 Can you explain why we rarely notice ambiguity in our daily life? Because we subconsciously rely on the context and the intonation 27  Not all ambiguous sentences can be disambiguated through intonation, like sentence (11). 11. Flying planes can be dangerous. Two interpretations: 1. Planes that are flying are dangerous (flying is Adj modifying planes). 2. The action of flying planes can be dangerous. (flying is a Ving and planes is an object for this verb; the subject of this sentence is the clause flying planes) 28 ‫‪Think of examples of structural‬‬ ‫‪ambiguity in Arabic:‬‬ ‫َغ‬ ‫َق‬ ‫َّل‬ ‫اَل‬ ‫َّل‬ ‫َأ‬ ‫َيا ُّيَه ا ا ِذيَن آَم ُنوا َتَتَو ْو ا ْو ًم ا ِض َب‬ ‫الَّلُه َعَلْيِه ْم َق ْد َيِئُس وا ِم َن اآْل ِخ َر ِة َكَم ا َيِئَس‬ ‫اْلُكَّف اُر ِم ْن َأْص َح اِب اْلُق ُبوِر (‪)13‬‬ ‫سورة الممتحنة‬ ‫‪29‬‬  ‫‪ :‬سيذهب توم و سوزان أو جون ‬ ‫ترك ساعي البريد رسالة و طردا أللن ‬ ‫‪ :‬تحب ميرى توم أكثر من سوزان ‬ ‫‪ :‬لم تغادر ألنها كانت غاضبة ‬ ‫مالعب التنس مفتوحة لألعضاء فقط أيام الخميس ‬ ‫‪:‬‬ ‫‪ :‬تحدث أربعة طالب مع كل مدرس ‬ ‫‪ :‬لم يجب على سؤال واحد ‬ ‫‪ :‬أخبر جون جاك أن توم ينتظره ‬ ‫‪30‬‬ 31