Chapter 6

Question 1

Active voice

Answer 1

A sentence structure in which the agent is mapped onto the subject position

Question 2

Agent

Answer 2

The entity that causes the event portrayed in a sentence to occur

Question 3

Agreement

Answer 3

A set of syntactic devices for linking related elements within and between sentences

Question 4

Canonical word order

Answer 4

The typical sequence of sentence elements

Question 5

Clause

Answer 5

A simple sentence that is part of a larger complex sentence

Question 6

Cleft sentence

Answer 6

A syntactic structure that attaches an introductory clause to the beginning of a sentence for the purpose of highlighting one of the participants in the event

Question 7

Cloze probability

Answer 7

The likelihood that a person will complete a sentence with a particular word

Question 8

Collocation

Answer 8

A sequence of words that frequently go together

Question 9

Connectionist network

Answer 9

A computer program that models statistical learning

Question 10

Constraint-based model

Answer 10

The proposal that syntactic analysis and semantic interpretation occur simultaneously and influence each other

Question 11

Dative construction

Answer 11

A syntactic structure that entails the meaning of doing something for the benefit of someone else

Question 12

Garden path model

Answer 12

A two-staged model of sentence processing in which syntactic analysis precedes semantic interpretation

Question 13

Garden path sentence

Answer 13

A sentence that deviates significantly from expected structure, making it difficult to process

Question 14

Heuristic

Answer 14

A mental shortcut to problem solving that usually, but not always, gives the correct answer

Question 15

Hierarchical structure in advance planning

Answer 15

A programming approach that makes a general plan at the highest level while restricting the scope of planning at lower levels

Question 16

High attachment

Answer 16

The parsing strategy of attaching a prepositional phrase to the verb

Question 17

Incremental model

Answer 17

A model in which the processing at one step is still underway when the processing at the next step begins

Question 18

Intonational phrase boundary

Answer 18

A prosodic cue consisting of a change of pitch, usually downward, and a lengthening of the final syllable that signals the end of a syntactic phrase

Question 19

Irreversible sentence

Answer 19

A sentence that no longer makes real-word sense if the agent and patient swap subject and object positions

Question 20

Late closure

Answer 20

A syntactic parsing strategy that continues to add new words to the current structure unless there is sufficient evidence that a new structure should begin

Question 21

Late language emergence

Answer 21

A condition in which children are initially delayed in language development but eventually catch up with their peers

Question 22

Lexical boost

Answer 22

An increase in syntactic priming when the verb is repeated between the prime and target sentences

Question 23

Lexical bootstrapping

Answer 23

The ability use word meanings to make inferences about syntactic structure

Question 24

Low attachment

Answer 24

The parsing strategy of attaching a prepositional phrase to the object

Question 25

Mean length of utterance

Answer 25

The standard measure of children's syntactic complexity

Question 26

N400

Answer 26

A negative-going ERP waveform that begins about 400 milliseconds after a semantically inconsistent stimulus is presented

Question 27

Number of different words

Answer 27

A common measure of the child's productive vocabulary

Question 28

Overgeneralization

Answer 28

The treatment of irregular words as if they were regularly inflected

Question 29

P600

Answer 29

A positive-going ERP waveform that starts about 600 milliseconds after a syntactically inconsistent stimulus is presented

Question 30

Parallel model

Answer 30

A model in which the processing at one step occurs simultaneously with the same processing at other steps

Question 31

Passive voice

Answer 31

A sentence structure in which the patient is mapped onto the subject position

Question 32

Patient

Answer 32

The entity that is acted upon in the event that is portrayed in a sentence

Question 33

Poverty-of-the-stimulus argument

Answer 33

The position that the linguistic input children receive is insufficient for them to learn the language

Question 34

Prosodic bootstrapping

Answer 34

A hypothesis proposing that infants use intonation and stress patterns to infer phrase and word boundaries. The use of prosodic patterns to identify syntactic structure

Question 35

Reduced relative clause

Answer 35

A kind of embedded syntactic structure that allows for the economy of expression but can be extremely difficult to process in some cases

Question 36

Referential priming

Answer 36

An experimental procedure in which the participant is first shown only one of the items of a visual display before the full display is presented

Question 37

Relative clause

Answer 37

A sentence that is placed inside of another sentence for the purpose of describing a noun

Question 38

Repetition suppression

Answer 38

A reduction in brain activity when a syntactically primed sentence is processed

Question 39

Reversible sentence

Answer 39

A sentence that still makes sense, nut with a different meaning, if the agent and patient swap subject and object positions

Question 40

Revision

Answer 40

A disruption of speech that changes the syntactic structure of the utterance

Question 41

Scrambling

Answer 41

The syntactic process of putting the object before the subject

Question 42

Sentence-picture matching task

Answer 42

A procedure in which the respondent selects from a set of pictures that one that is described by the prompt sentence

Question 43

Serial model

Answer 43

A model in which all of the processing at one step needs to be completed before moving on to the next step

Question 44

Stall

Answer 44

A disruption of speech that does not change the syntactic structure of the utterance

Question 45

Syntactic priming

Answer 45

The tendency to repeat a previously heard sentence structure

Question 46

Syntax

Answer 46

A set of rules for ordering words in a sentence

Question 47

Thematic role assignment

Answer 47

The mapping of thematic roles onto syntactic positions such as subject and object

Question 48

Thematic roles

Answer 48

The various types of participants involved in an event portrayed in a sentence

Question 49

Usage-based framework

Answer 49

The position that the child uses general cognitive mechanisms like pattern detection and categorization to gradually build an understanding of the grammar of the language