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Published on: September 5, 2019
Psycholinguistic Evidence for Inverse Scope in Korean
Sunyoung Lee1, William O'Grady2
1Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaiì at Mānoa, Moore Hall 569, East-West Road 1890, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. sunyoung@hawaii.edu.
Korean allows inverse scope interpretation, similar to English, though it is a less preferred option. This linguistic finding suggests processing limitations related to working memory may influence sentence interpretation.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Investigating the scope interpretation of sentences with indefinite subjects and universally quantified direct objects.
- Examining the availability of inverse scope in the Korean language.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if Korean permits inverse scope interpretation.
- To compare Korean's scope interpretation patterns with English.
Main Methods:
- Conducted an off-line acceptability judgment task with 38 participants.
- Utilized an online self-paced reading task with 22 participants.
Main Results:
- Korean permits inverse scope interpretations as a secondary option.
- Inverse scope interpretation in Korean is dispreferred, similar to English.
Conclusions:
- Processing considerations, specifically working memory load, likely explain the dispreference for inverse scope in Korean.
- The findings contribute to understanding cross-linguistic variation in scope interpretation.
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