language comprehension Flashcards
what are the two levels of analysis?
- syntactical structure
- analyse the rules (e.g. word order) for formation of grammatical sentences. - sentence meaning
- analyse the intended as opposed to literal meaning e.g. irong,sarcasm
what is parsing and it’s four possibilities
- analyse the syntactic/grammatical structure of sentences
at least four different possibilities:
1. syntactic occurs before semantic analysis
2. semantic occurs before syntactic analysis
3. syntactic and semantic analysis occur together
4. syntax and semantics are closely related
ambiguous sentences
- reveal info about the parsing process
- ambiguity at a global level, a whole sentence can have two or more meanings
- ambiguity at a local level, various meanings possible at some point when parsing
prosodic cues
- make rapid use of prosodic cues to resolve ambiguity and facilitate understanding
prosodic cues include: - stress (or accent)
- pauses
- intonation (rise/fall)
- rhythm
- word duration
garden path model (fraizier et al)
- two stage serial processing model
- detected by recording eye tracking movements. will tell us where and when a reader has gone wrong
makes the following assumptions:
- one syntactical structure considered
- semantics not involved initially
- simplest syntactical structure chosen using minimal attachment and late closure
- if sentence is incompatible with additional semantic information interpretation revised (2nd stage)
- misleading content entices you to think there is only one particular interpretation
minimal attachement
- grammatical structure producing fewest nodes preferred
- nodes=major parts of the sentence (noun/verbs)
late closure
new words encountered are attached to current phrase if grammatically permissible
strengths and limitations of garden path model
strengths
- provides a simple account
- use of principles reduced processing demands
limitations
- assumption that we do not use meanings of words initially is inconsistent with some evidence
- do not always adhere to principle
- no definitive test of model
- does not account for difference in languages that have a preference for early closure e.g. french,spanish
constraint based model
- one stage parallel processing model
assumptions: - sources of info (syntac,semantics,context) are available to parse
- constrain the number of possible interpretations
- competing syntactic analyses of a sentence activated at the same time
- structure receiving most support from constraints is highly activated
strengths and limitations of constraint model
strengths
- efficient that use all relevant info from the outset when interpreting sentences
- able to account for more than one syntactic analysis at a time
limitations
- unlike garden model fails to make precise predictions
unrestricted race model
- combines both constraint and garden path
following 3 assumptions - all sources of info used to identify syntactic structure of sentence
- all other structures are ignored, unless favoured structure disconfirmed by subsequent info
- if chosen structure discarded re analysis is undertaken before another structure is chosen.
pragmatics
- the study of intended (not literal) meaning
- figurative language=not to be taken literally
- metaphor, irony, idiom
understanding metaphor
traditionally assumed it is very effortful and used a lot of cognitive demand
standard pragmatic model
- understanding metaphorical statements involves three stages
1) literal meaning first accessed
2) reader/listener decides if literal meaning makes sense
3) if literal meaning inadequate search for suitable non literal meaning
- predicts metaphorical meaning accessed more slowly than literal one. some understood more rapidly
prediction model
- understanding metaphorical statements involves two stages
1) latent semantic analysis, represents the meaning of words based on relations with other words
2) construction-integration, use info from first stage to construct interpretation
example: all lawyers are sharks
1. latent semantic analysis, find associated words based on similar meaning
2. select words with what we know to be true
- need to adopt the speakers perspective to comprehend what they are saying
- common ground= shared knowledge between speaker and listener
- very attention demanding
