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Updated: Jul 4, 2026
08:32
Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks
Published on: September 5, 2019
In defense of competition during syntactic ambiguity resolution.
1FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands. theo.vosse@fcdonders.ru.nl
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
|June 4, 2008
Summary
Globally ambiguous sentences are read faster than locally ambiguous ones, challenging current models of sentence comprehension. A parallel-interactive model, without pooling scores, can explain these reading time differences.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Previous eye-tracking studies reported faster reading times for globally ambiguous (GA) sentences compared to locally ambiguous (LA) sentences.
- These findings were interpreted as evidence against constraint-based models of sentence comprehension that assume concurrent processing and pooled competition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-evaluate the interpretation of reading time data concerning sentence ambiguity.
- To propose an alternative model that accounts for observed reading times without abandoning competition-based parsing.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing eye-tracking data on sentence reading times.
- Theoretical modeling of sentence comprehension processes.
Main Results:
- The reported reading time data (GA faster than LA) do not necessarily invalidate competition-based models.
- A parallel-interactive model where syntactic and conceptual processors do not pool quality scores can account for the data.
Conclusions:
- Competition remains a viable mechanism for explaining parsing phenomena.
- The proposed parallel-interactive model offers an alternative explanation for reading time differences in ambiguous sentences.
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