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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2006

DESPINA PAPADOPOULOU  and
HARALD CLAHSEN
DESPINA PAPADOPOULOU
Affiliation:
University of Essex
HARALD CLAHSEN
Affiliation:
University of Essex
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Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 109 - 138
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The research in this paper has been supported by a Ph.D. studentship of the University of Essex to the first author and a grant from the Leverhulme Foundation to the second. Results from the present paper have been presented at the 15th CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, New York, March 2002. We are very grateful to Phil Scholfield and Ricardo Russo for detailed statistical advice. We also thank Gerry Altmann, Claudia Felser, Theo Marinis, Don Mitchell, Leah Roberts and two anonymous JL referees for comments and helpful suggestions.