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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sentence Frames

Results-First Fixation Duration

Total Reading Time

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

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

Results- Mean Reading Times

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

Results – Mean Total Reading Time

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)

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