Language and Reading 2 Flashcards
what are the steps involved in processing a sentence?
- recognising individual word
- assign syntactic structure
- interpretation
what does it mean to assign syntactic structure?
syntactic rules are applied to put words together into meaningful groups so that meaning of sentence can be understood
what is meant by interpretation?
- determining the intended meaning of the sentence in the context
what is ‘parsing’?
assigning syntactic structure to a sentence
involved grouping together the incoming words into appropriate phrases
what is syntax?
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language
words are structured into phrases and clauses
what are tree diagrams?
- these depict the ways words are structured into phrases, clauses and sentences
- each sentence can be broken into nodes (smaller constituents)
- nodes are connected via branches
- constituents can be combined together to create phrases like noun phrases or verb phrases
- syntax = way these nodes are combined
define syntactic ambiguity
this is where a clause of sentence may have more than one interpretation
syntactic ambiguity allows researchers to examine what factors make readers choose one particular interpretation over other interpretations
what are the two types of syntactic ambiguity?
- global ambiguity
- temporary ambiguity
what is global ambiguity?
these ambiguous sentences are ones that remain ambiguous between 2 or more interpretations
EVEN when you reach the end of the sentence
what is temporary ambiguity?
sentences that start of ambiguous but are then resolved in favour of one interpretation by the time you reach end of sentence
give an example of global syntactic ambiguity
THE SPY OBSERVED THE POLITICIAN WITH BINOCULARS
- who was was holding the binoculars, the spy or the politician?
this sentence = ambiguous due to absence of context
ambiguity still remains even when sentence finished
by grouping together words in different ways, there can be different meanings
give an example of temporary syntactic ambiguity
WHILE ANNA DRESSED THE BABY THREW UP
when the phrase ‘the baby’ is reached, the sentence regarding whether Anna dressed the baby or herself
BUT
by end of the sentence, the phrase ‘threw up’ disambiguates the sentence that suggests Anna dresses the baby.
what are temporary ambiguity sentences also known as?
garden path sentences
what does garden path sentence mean?
these sentences lead readers to expect one interpretation but by the end will have a whole new interpretation
what are the two categories that theories of parsing can be divided into?
1/ two-stage, serial processing theories
2/ one-stage, parallel processing models
explain serial models (Garden Path Theory)
1/ two-stage, serial processing theories (theories of parsing - how syntax structures formed)
- according to this theory, only one syntactic structure or one version of the ‘tree’ is initially considered
- meaning of sentence is not involved in selection of this structure
- simplest sentence structure is chosen following 2 principles
minimal attachment and late closure - if simplest structure is incorrect, sentence meaning can influence re-analysis
what are the 2 principles that helps choose the simplest sentence structure?
minimal attachment
late closure
explain how minimal attachment helps choose the simplest structure
- this is the principle resorted to first
- simply states individual builds tree that has simplest structure
- simplest structure = fewest nodes in tree diagram
explain how late closure helps choose the simplest structure
- this principle is chosen if tree diagrams have same number of nodes
- same number of minimal nodes = minimal attachment cannot choose which sentence is simpler
- according to late closure theory, reader should associate incoming material with the most recent material possible
EXAMPLE: “She said he tickled her yesterday”
- this example gives two interpretation
1/ was the saying of tickling yesterday
2/ was the tickling yesterday
- late closure theory suggests that because ‘tickling’ mentioned more recently than ‘said’, person would associate ‘yesterday’ with ‘tickled’ not ‘said’
- therefore, interpretation would be that the tickling occured yesterday, not the saying of the tickling
explain the parallel models: constraint satisfaction
2/ one-stage, parallel processing models (theories of parsing - forming syntax structure)
- serial models, the parser only considers one interpretation at a time
- parallel models allow more factors to influence parsing process (process of forming syntax structure, how you decide how to interpret what is in a sentence)
- parallel models known as ‘constraint satisfaction’ accounts
- all relevant sources of information are available to parser and are considered at the same time
- competing sentence structures are activated simultaneously
- initial interpretation of a sentence depends on multiple sources of information
what are the multiple sources of information that initial interpretation of a sentence depends on?
- context
context in which sentence appears - plausibility
plausibility of each interpretation - general world knowledge
how well interpretation fits with readers general world knowledge - verb bias
what are the different sources of information known as in parallel model?
constraints
how is a syntax structure chosen according to constraint satisfaction?
- constraint satisfaction suggests competing interpretations are activated simultaneously
- syntax structure that is chosen is the one that receives most support from all 5 constraints
- this syntax structure will be most highly activated and therefore chosen
Define non-literal language
when intended meaning cannot be derived by direct composition of literal meaning of the words as guided by grammar
one thing is said to express another
for example:
idiom ‘piece of cake’ does not literally refer to a slice of cake but rather referring to how simple/easy a task is
What are some examples of non-literal words?
- metaphor
- idiom
- irony
define metaphor
expression that describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is similar to the characteristics possessed by the person or object intended to describe
e.g.:
- instead of saying, “My lawyer is tenacious, vicious, ferocious, greedy, aggressive, and ruthless”
- you can say “My lawyer is a shark”
- this evokes all of these qualities in a single expression
define idiom
group of words in a fixed order to have a particular meaning that is different from the meaning of each word understood on its own
e.g.:
- bite the bullet
- kick the bucket
- spill the beans
define irony
a means of expression that suggests a different, humorous or angry meaning for the words used
what are the 3 theories of figurative (non-literal) language processing?
- standard pragmatic view
- graded salience hypothesis
- direct access view
explain the standard pragmatic view
irony
- view that the function of irony is to communicate the opposite of what is said
- with regards to how irony is processed, the standard pragmatic view suggests that the literal meaning of irony is processed first
- when a mismatch of context is detected, a re-analyses of the utterance detects the irony
- as re-analysis is required, ironic language should result in a processing cost compared to literal language
- processing cost = processing would take longer than if utterance was literal
this is a example of a serial model as only one interpretation is considered at a time
explain the graded salience hypothesis
irony
- this hypothesis makes different predictions depending on whether the irony is familiar or unfamiliar
- highly familiar ironies = ironic meaning processed/accessed immediately
- unfamiliar ironies = phrases that are not heard often ironically, literal meaning accessed first then reanalysed when context mismatches utterance
- processing cost would only occur for unfamiliar ironies
explain the direct access view
irony
- states that literal and ironic language treated same way
- both are just language
- whatever meaning is supported by context is the meaning that will be chosen
- if context supports ironic interpretation = this meaning can be accessed directly WITHOUT literal meaning being accessed first
- according to this theory, there is no additional processing cost for ironic language as it is treated same as literal language
this is an example of parallel model as processing occurs at same time
what does the discussion of irony show?
- shows context plays crucial role in determining meaning of sentence
Outline study that shows how context and world knowledge helps understand the meaning of a sentence
(Hagoort et al., 2004) ERP’s, brain activity, reading task
- ppts asked to complete reading task
- whilst reading, researchers used ‘event-related potentials’ (ERP’s) to monitor brain activity
- when encountering a word that does not fit with sentence = produces N400
- N400 = large spike in electrical activity produced by brain 400ms after seeing a word
- N400 tells us how people process a sentence
- when reading sentence that makes sense with context and world knowledge, N400 spike is not that high as not much processing goes on
- when reading sentence that does not make sense, N400 spike is larger as it shows readers trying to process and understand sentence
