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Real-time resolution of VP ellipsis ambiguity and processing depth.
Hiroki Fujita1, Masaya Yoshida2,3
1Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. hiroki.fujita@uni-potsdam.de.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|February 25, 2026
Summary
Researchers explored two interpretations of VP ellipsis sentences, finding that processing depth influences whether people prefer strict or sloppy meanings. Comprehension accuracy also affects interpretation preference in sentence processing.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- VP ellipsis sentences present ambiguity, allowing for strict or sloppy interpretations.
- Previous research on real-time processing preferences for these interpretations yielded mixed results.
- Potential factors influencing these mixed findings include statistical power, materials, and processing depth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the causes of inconclusive findings in VP ellipsis interpretation.
- To examine the role of statistical power, experimental materials, and processing depth.
- To assess the impact of form mismatches on ambiguity resolution.
Main Methods:
- Conducted three reading experiments with a large sample size (360 participants).
- Experiment 1: Large-scale replication to check for statistical power issues.
- Experiment 2: Used revised materials to address potential limitations.
- Experiment 3: Incorporated comprehension questions to gauge processing depth.
Main Results:
- Experiment 1 showed no clear interpretation preference.
- Experiment 2 revealed a preference for the strict interpretation with revised materials.
- Experiment 3 indicated that accurate comprehension correlated with strict interpretation preference, while errors favored the sloppy interpretation.
- Form mismatches did not significantly affect interpretation preferences across experiments.
Conclusions:
- Processing depth significantly influences the preference for strict versus sloppy interpretations in VP ellipsis.
- Comprehension accuracy is a key factor in resolving VP ellipsis ambiguities.
- Proposed an account for real-time VP ellipsis resolution mechanisms.
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