Online revision process in clause-boundary garden-path sentences

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Sentence processing research has long debated online parsing and revision of garden-path sentences.
• Clause-boundary ambiguities, like 'After Mary dressed John bathed,' present parsing challenges.
• Evidence suggests parsers initially misanalyze these sentences, but revision during online processing remains controversial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the online revision process in clause-boundary garden-path sentences.
• To determine if grammatical constraints, specifically relative clauses, influence revision.
• To differentiate revision mechanisms based on the type of embedded clause.

Main Methods:

• Two self-paced reading experiments were conducted.
• Grammatical constraints were manipulated using embedded subject or object relative clauses within ambiguous DPs.
• Reader behavior was analyzed to infer parsing and revision strategies.

Main Results:

• Evidence for revision was found when a subject relative clause was embedded.
• No evidence of revision was observed when an object relative clause was embedded.
• The type of embedded relative clause significantly affects the online revision process.

Conclusions:

• The parser may assign grammatical structures reflecting input strings during revision of clause-boundary ambiguities.
• Object relative clauses appear to impede or alter the online revision of these ambiguities.
• Findings contribute to understanding the dynamic nature of sentence parsing and ambiguity resolution.