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Temporal references and temporal relations in sentence comprehension.

Silvia P Gennari1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA. sgen@lcnl.wisc.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|July 9, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Readers process sentence temporal references faster when subordinate clauses overlap with main clause events. This study reveals how temporal relationships in sentences are understood online.

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Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Linguistics

Background:

  • Understanding temporal references in language is crucial for sentence comprehension.
  • The processing of temporal relations in complex sentences, particularly those with subordinate clauses, remains an area of active research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the online interpretation of temporal references in sentences with main and subordinate clauses.
  • To determine how temporal overlap and distance influence reading times for different clause types (state vs. event).

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted using sentence comprehension tasks.
  • Experiment 1 and 2: examined state and event subordinate clauses, manipulating temporal overlap and distance.
  • Experiment 3: investigated temporal references in non-subordinate main clauses.

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  • Experiment 4: independently manipulated temporal overlap and distance to analyze event and state clauses separately.

    • Main Results:

    • Faster reading times were observed for subordinate temporal references that overlapped with or were close to the main clause event time.
    • Nonoverlapping and distant temporal references resulted in slower reading times.
    • Temporal relations between clauses are established online during sentence processing.
    • Event and state clauses appear to be processed based on distinct temporal parameters.

    Conclusions:

    • The comprehension of temporal references in sentences is influenced by the proximity and overlap of events described in main and subordinate clauses.
    • Contingency relations between events and states play a significant role in how temporal information is integrated during discourse processing.
    • Findings contribute to understanding the online mechanisms of temporal interpretation in psycholinguistics.