1. Ferreira and Henderson (1990)
Use of Verb Information in Syntactic Parsing: Evidence From Eye Movements and Word-by-Word Self-Paced Reading
Ferreira and Henderson (1990)

2. Sentence processing models
Interactive model: All sorts of information (lexical, syntactic, semantic) communicate in an unconstrained fashion to produce the most plausible reading at the earliest stages of sentence comprehension

3. Sentence Processing Models cont.
Garden Path Model: Distinct modules within the language system. Communication occurs, but in a constrained fashion.
Minimal Attachment Principle: Sentences initially receive the simplest syntactic analysis possible

4. Research Questions
Does verb information aid readers in their initial parsing of temporarily ambiguous sentences?
Can verb subcategorization override minimal attachment?

5. Methodology Experiment 1: Eyetracking
Experiment 2: noncumulative word-by-word self-paced paradigm
Experiment 3: cumulative word-by-word self-paced paradigm

6. Experiment 1
Subjects: 12 members of University of Massachusetts community
Materials: four lists of 80 experimental items and 72 fillers
Factors: verb bias, presence of complementizer

7. Verb Types
Minimal Attachment Verbs: Strongly biased for a minimal attachment of the ambiguous noun phrase, e.g. guess
Nonminimal Attachment Verbs: Strongly biased for a nonminimal interpretation of the ambiguous noun phrase, e.g. brag

8. Sentence Frames

9. Results-First Fixation Duration

10. Total Reading Time

11. Regressions
Verb bias had effect on regressions to the disambiguating region.
Reanalysis appeared to be easier with nonminimal attachment verbs
(4 vs. 21 regressions)

12. Experiment 2 Self-paced reading task (non-cumulative)
Subjects: 24 University of Alberta undergraduates
Materials: Same as Experiment 1

13. Results- Mean Reading Times

14. Experiment 3
Same as Experiment 2, but with a cumulative self-paced reading task
(allows reader to reread)

15. Results – Mean Total Reading Time

16. Discussion
Expt. 1 : Verb bias did not prevent misanalysis, but seemed to facilitate reanalysis
Expt. 2: Robust effect of verb bias on postdisambiguating region (less total reading times) → verb bias aids reanalysis
Expt. 3: weaker effects (methodological issues)

17. SO…
The fact that sentences lacking a complementizer are harder to process regardless of verb bias supports the garden-path model!