LECTURE 10- LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

Question 1

What is syntacical/ parsing

Answer 1

analysing the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences

Question 2

what is pragmatics

Answer 2

how we draw inferences from sentences

analyse the intended as opposed to literal, meaning e.g. irony sarcasm

Question 3

Parsing and ambiguity

how do we resolve ambiguity?

Answer 3

ambiguious sentences can tell us how we use parsing

ambiguity at a global level= a whole sentence can have two or more meanings

ambiguity at a local level= various meanings possible at some points during a sentence

resolving= Using prosodic cues rapidly. These are
stress pauses intonations rhythm and word duration

Question 4

Explain the garden path model- model of parsing

Answer 4

2 stage serial processing model

misleading information at beginning of sentence means reader is enticed towards the incorrect interpretation so they must retrace mental footsteps to find and understand alternative ways to resolve the misleading information. for example, having to go back and re read a sentence. Research on this includes detecting eye movements

Assumptions of garden path model- initially only consider one syntactical structure so semantics is not involved initially. Humans try to use the simplest syntactical structure – if a sentence is incompatible with the simple syntactical structure interpretation must be revised.

Stages of garden path= minimal attachment (structure producing fewest nodes) — > late closure (as new words are encountered they are attached to current phrase if grammatically permissible)

Question 5

strengths and weaknesses of the garden path model

Answer 5

Strengths of this model= simple and straightforward,

Weaknesses= assumption that we don’t use semantics initially is inconsistent with some evidence/ no way to test this model/ no account for differences in languages that have a preference for early closure.

Question 6

constraint model

Answer 6

one stage parallel model

Assumptions- all sources of info are available at the start to parse/ competing syntactic analysis of a sentence are activated at the same time/ structure receiving most support is where all constraints are highly activated at the same time.

Basically do everything at the same time

Question 7

strengths and weaknesses of constraint based model

Answer 7

Strengths of this model= efficient and can account for more than one syntactic analysis at the same time

Weaknesses- fails to make precise predictions about parsing, no structure to the model not specified

Question 8

unrestricted race model

Answer 8

Combines garden path and constraint based models

3 assumptions=

All sources of info used to identify syntactic structure of a sentence (consistent with constraint based model)

All other structures are ignored, unless favored structure is proved wrong with subsequent information

If chosen structure is discarded reanalysis is undertaken before another structure is chosen (consistent with garden path model)