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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Competing Biases in Real-Time Sentence Processing.

Hiroki Fujita¹

¹Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

Journal of Cognition

|July 6, 2026

Summary

Sentence processing involves resolving ambiguity. Semantic constraints and verb frequency initially favor one interpretation, but temporal cues can later change this, showing dynamic bias competition in real-time language comprehension.

Keywords:

Ambiguity resolution computational modelling constraint-based approach parsing sentence processing

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Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Science
Computational Linguistics

Background:

Sentences with locally ambiguous noun phrases (NPs) pose challenges for real-time language processing.
Initial parsing of ambiguous NPs can be influenced by semantic/categorial appropriateness and verb selectional frequency.
Temporal adjuncts can introduce biases that may alter initial parsing preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how semantic/categorial constraints and selectional frequency influence the resolution of complement ambiguity in real-time.
To examine the impact of temporal adjuncts on the resolution of locally ambiguous noun phrases.
To simulate the observed parsing process using an interactive constraint-based framework.

Main Methods:

Experimental manipulation of semantic/categorial constraints, selectional frequency, and temporal adjuncts.
Real-time measurement of sentence processing, likely involving eye-tracking or self-paced reading.
Computational modeling using an interactive constraint-based framework to simulate parsing dynamics.

Main Results:

Semantic/categorial constraints and selectional frequency initially biased processing towards the subject analysis.
Temporal adjuncts progressively influenced parsing and eventually overrode initial biases.
The simulation successfully replicated the observed dynamic interplay of competing biases.

Conclusions:

Real-time sentence processing is dynamically influenced by multiple, competing biases.
Both lexical-semantic factors and syntactic structure interact dynamically during ambiguity resolution.
Temporal context plays a crucial role in modulating parsing preferences over time.