Chapter 3

Question 1

Parsing

Answer 1

The process of assigning elements of surface structure to linguistic categories in order to get deep structure (understand)

The result of parsing is an internal representation of the linguistic relationships within a sentence, usually in the form of a tree structure or phrase marker

NP det + (adj) + N

a form of problem solving or decision making in the sense that we are making decisions (not necessarily conscious) about where to place incoming words into the phrase marker we are building

Question 2

Parsing –> Immediacy principle: we make these decisions immediately as we encounter a word

Exp: Stine (1990) Measured mean RTs during reading in a sentence presented word by word

The blond kid…..who goes to the park…. on this morning…. was very happy….

Answer 2

The larger the number of phrases the greater RTs during the next pause

RTs increase after sentences was associated to the effort integrating new information within the ongoing phrase marker

Question 3

Syntactic ambiguity

Answer 3

A given sentence may have distinct meanings given the potential grammatical functions of their words

Local ambiguity: the syntactic function of a word became temporally ambiguous until the end of the sentence

Permanent ambiguity: sentences that remain ambiguous even when all the information is provided

Question 4

Garden Path” or modular perspective (Frazier, 1987, 1995):

Answer 4

Sentences where we assume a favorite meaning but close to the end we notice that our interpretation is incorrect

For example: Since Jay always jogs a mile seems like a very short distance to him

Question 5

The syntactic module apply two possible strategies in order to solve syntactic ambiguity:

1.- Minimal Attachment strategy:

Answer 5

we prefer attaching new items into the phrase marker being constructed using the fewest syntactic nodes consistent with the rules of language.

For example: Ernie kissed Marcie and her sister….kissed John

Question 6

The syntactic module apply two possible strategies in order to solve syntactic ambiguity:

Late closure:

Answer 6

If the number of nodes of the phrase marker is equivalent we will prefer to attach new items to the current constituent

For example: Jessie put the book Kathy was reading in the library

Question 7

Constraint-based model or interactive perspective (McClelland, 1987; Boland, Tanenhaus y Garnsey, 1990; MacDonald, 1993):

Answer 7

An alternative view is that syntax is not an encapsulated (modular) system, but it will interact with lexical and semantical information during the comprehension process

The selection of the more appropriate meaning depends on:

frequency of use of the alternative meanings (ambiguous words)
context (neutral= we chose the more frequent option; McDonald,1994)

Question 8

Linguistic adjustment theory (Mitchell, Cuetos y Corley, 1992; Mitchell, 1995; Cuetos, Mitchell y Corley, 1996).

Answer 8

Parsing is a serial processing system

Given an ambiguous structure the user will initially adopt a resolution strategy that has proven to be the most frequently appropriate in the past

In Spanish, French, German and Dutch there is a preference for attachment to the first noun (“la hija tuvo un accidente”)

In Italian, there is a preference for attachment to the second noun

In English the results are not clear

Question 9

Types of figurative language:

Answer 9

Indirect speech acts (can you open the window?)

metaphor (My lawyer is a snake),

Idiomatic expression (George went thought the roof),

metonymy (the ham sandwich needs a coke),

proverb (Don’t put all your eggs in one basket)

Question 10

Pragmatic theory (Searle, 1975):

Answer 10

We comprehend figurative language by considering the literal meaning, then rejecting it

Three stages for figurative language comprehension:

1. • Extract literal meaning
2. -Decide whether the literal meaning is acceptable (communicative conventions)
3. • If literal meaning is not acceptable listeners compute an indirect meaning based on the context and communicative conventions

It takes longer to respond to literally false sentences that had metaphoric meaning = metaphoric meaning comprehension is relatively authomatic

Question 11

Conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff y Johnson, 1980, 1987):

Answer 11

Metaphors are not creative expressions but rather instantiations of underlying conceptual metaphors

Ej: Verbal metaphors about love such as “Look how far we’ve come; We arrived to the end” had an underlying conceptual metaphor like “LOVE IS A JOURNEY”

Question 12

Class Inclusion theory (Glucksberg et al. 1990):

Answer 12

Metaphors are class inclusion statements:

Ex: My office is a Jail

When we see a metaphor, we understand it as analogous to the kinds of class inclusion statement

1. • We retrieve lexical representations of the appropriate nouns
2. • And assess whether the class inclusion relation is applied appropriately

Terms belongs not to just one lexical category in the internal lexicon but to many. Instantiation is the process of identifying the specific meaning of a general term.

To comprehend a metaphor involves activating the relevant category of meaning

Drawing a comprehender’s attention to the more concrete aspects of a vehicle interferes the ability to activate more abstract concepts associated to the vehicle

Question 13

Story Grammars (Rumelhart, 1975,1977; Mandler, 1978)

Answer 13

is a schema in semantic memory that identifies the typical or expected arrangement of events in a story

Stories have structure (setting, episodes, ending)

The main purpose of text comprehension is to reconstruct latent structure of the story (textual grammar)

Question 14

Episodes

Answer 14

have characteristic structures (events, response, goal, attempt, outcome)

Question 15

Kintsch y Van Dijk (1978):

Text comprehension generate mental representations in at least three different but interrelated levels:

Answer 15

1. Surface level
2. Micro structural level
3. Macro structural level

Question 16

Surface level

Answer 16

Temporary representation of the sequence of words in working memory (contains syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information about sentences)

Question 17

Microstructural level: Have (Claudia, dog)

Answer 17

Is a more stable representation that has the shape of a propositional network that details the relationship between individual sentences in the text / discourse, and represent the meaning: base text (it is built based on surface level representation)

Question 18

Macrostructural level:

Answer 18

Propositional representation (macroproposition) built on the basis of microstructural information (base text) with abstractive features (resume or selective reduction of information).

The generation of the macrostructure is guided by operators or macrorules (relate micropropositions with ideas reflecting the essential meaning = macropropositions)

1. • Suppression: To eliminate irrelevant or secondary propositions (those that do not contribute to interpret other propositions, the less interconnected ones)
2. • Generalization: To replace a sequence of propositions by a more general one that reflects the essential information
3. • Construction: To replace a sequence of proposition by another one with new information (conditional propositions)

The iterative application of these operations or macrorules will result in a single final macroproposition that will occupies the highest position in the macrostructure hierarchy

Text / discourse processing occurs in a cyclical manner that start with the occurrence of the first sentence of a text and extends along the processing of the material

Question 19

Situational/Mental models (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Garnham, 1987; Fletcher, 1994)

Answer 19

the state of affairs that the text refers to (a mental o situational model of the world as described by the text)

Text /discourse comprehension from this perspective may include those representations based on text information but also inferred information regarding the comprehenders knowledge about the world (context dependent representations)

Situation model became a “dynamic” (vs. static schemas) representation about text information that is in continuous change according to the present and past knowledge of comprehenders.

Question 20

Features of SM (De Vega et al, 1999):

Situational/Mental models

Answer 20

1. • Unique and individual representation, that describe episodes with spatio-temporal coordinates
2. • SM are dynamic and are updated continuously
3. • Isomorphism with the situations that describe
4. • Its number is potentially infinite, but all they have common basic parameters (space, time, causality)
5. • Involve the reduction of information by individual subjectivity
6. • At the neural level, SM information relates to hippocampal processing (episodic memory independent form semantic memory systems.

Question 21

Constructivist model of inferential processing (Graesser et al. 1994; Singer et al , 1994):

Answer 21

Readers explicitly extract and elaborate information from the text in order to satisfy comprehension needed, to construct a coherent text representation, and to understand the facts (top-down intentional mechanisms)