Language Comprehension Flashcards
Bridging inferences
In language comprehension, inferences that connect the comprehension of a sentence to a prior part of the text or discourse.
Center-embedded sentences
Sentences in which one clause is embedded in another. (e.g., The boy whom the girl liked was sick).
Constituent
A phrase, or unit, in a sentence’s structure.
Elaborative inferences
In language comprehension, inferences that add new information to the interpretation of a text or discourse and often predict what will be coming up.
Garden-path sentences
Sentences with a transient ambiguity that lead listeners to make a wrong interpretation initially, which they then have to correct.
Immediacy of interpretation
In language comprehension, the principle that people try to extract meaning out of each word as it arrives, rather than waiting until the end of the sentence or even just the end of the constituent containing the word.
Interactive processing
The position that syntax and semantics are combined at all levels of language processing.
N400
A negativity in the event-related potential (ERP) at about 400 ms after the processing of a semantic anomaly.
P600
A positivity in the event-related potential (ERP) at about 600 ms after the processing of a syntactic anomaly.
Parsing
The process of creating a mental representation of the combined meaning of the words in a sentence.
Principle of minimal attachment
A rule of parsing that interprets a sentence in a way that results in minimal complication of the phrase structure.
Situation model
A representation of the events and situations described in a text.
Transient ambiguity
A temporary ambiguity within a sentence that is resolved by the end of the sentence.
Utilisation
The stage in language comprehension in which the comprehender uses the mental representation of the sentence’s meaning.
