Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics Flashcards
what was early work in psycholinguistics inspired by?
chomsky (1928) which distinguished between competence and performance
competence
speaker-hearer’s knowledge of the language, inc. grammaticality judgements
performance
-the actual use of language in concrete situations/how we use language
- distinguishable from competence as we may have memory limitations that have hesitations or errors
grammaticality judgements…
are not the same as sensicality judgements
- people distinguish between those through their innate implicit knowledge of the syntactic rules of their language, not based on prior experience
what did chomsky suggest about grammar?
it is generative- a finite number of rules can generate an infinite number of sentences, due to recursion
what is recursion?
referring to itself in its definition
what does recursion allow for?
rule-governed creativity, as we cannot store all possible sentences in our heads
what is incremental parsing?
each sentence of a language can be described in terms of hierarchal groupings of its words, by using phrase structure trees/tree diagrams
Tree diagrams and its influence on reading
the way we put and group things together in our diagram gives us different interpretations of a sentence
on-line incremental parsing
the parser/ reader constructs a syntactic structure on the basis of words as they arrive
What do parsing models investigate
how do different sources of knowledge (e.g. syntax,semantics ) interact with one another and when
parsing models
- modular accounts
- interactive accounts
modular accounts (serial processing)
- syntactic information is processed individually, with parsing solely based on syntactic preference
- subsequent processing takes other information into account, e.g., semantics
what if the parse is incompatible with the following information in the modular account
reanalysis occurs, takes time
how does frazier’s (1987) garden-path model believe parsing occurs? (still modular)
Within stage 1 we have:
- minimal attachment (go for the simplest structure of fewest nodes)
- late closure (incorporate words in the currently open phrase) OR link incoming material material with most recent material
Late closure; when does this happen
if there is no difference in tree nodes we keep the phrase open and attach incoming info whats being processed
Attach low
attach to the most recent constituent
interactive accounts
- all information is processed at the same time
constraint-based models (interactive account for parsing)
all relevant sources of information (constraints) can be used immediately to help syntactic parsing
syntactic analyses in the constraint based models
possible syntactic analysis generated in parallel with the activation of each analysis dependent on the support available at that moment
what happens if several levels of syntactic analysis get comparable support?
parsing is difficult due to competition between different analysis
how does reading evolve?
incrementally, as each incoming word is processed immediately
why must semantic processors be flexible?
-to deal with the variety of inputs quickly
- People shouldn’t immediately assign one specific interpretation to a word and then find out they selected the wrong one
lexical ambiguity- what are homonyms?
words with two unrelated interpretations
selective access model for homonyms
context provides access to contextually appropriate meaning
ordered access model for homonyms
activation on basis of meaning frequency, tried against context
parallel access model for homonyms
all meanings are activated
What has cross modal priming shown for homonym interpretation
we activate all meanings and use context to select the appropriate one
biased homonyms for homonyms
when one word has a more frequent meaning
balanced homonyms
both meanings are just as frequent
what has eye-tracking research found effects of in homonyms ?What does it introduce
effects of meaning frequency and context for lexical ambiguity
introduces the reordered access model 1988
reordered access model, duffy 1988
-hybrid of access models depending on frequency and context, which can increase activation of different meanings
- context give contextual boosts increasing activation level of one meaning, regardless of homonym frequency
subordination bias effect
less frequent meaning of a homonym will be harder to process than frequent ones
lexical polysemy- when does this occur?
- a case of one-too-many mapping
- when lexical items have more than one interpretation but these are semantically related to one another
- e.g. ‘Vietnam’ can either mean the event (war) or the country
metonymy
one salient part of an entity is used to refer to the entity as a whole
examples of metonymy
part-for-whole (synecdoche) (e.g. wings of a plane)
whole-for-part (e.g. Belguim team)
place-for-institution
place-for-event
producer-for-product (e.g. Dickens)
what can metonymy lead to?
do we have literal-first or figurative-first possibilities
unranked parallel models of metonymy
no hierarchy in activation
ranked parallel models of metonymy
activation levels depend on frequency, saliency, and basicness
what happens when metonymic sense is lexicalised?
there is no difficulty in establishing a metonymic sense
alternative metonymic model
- activation of a single abstract unspecified meaning which is the same for all semantically related senses
- We then use context to hone in on the specific interpretation (context is used as a tool instead of a judge)
what are pragmatics?
the distinction between what a speaker’s words literally mean compared to what they might mean by their words
what does pragmatics involve a combination of?
- word meaning for individual words, e.g., lexical ambiguity
- some kind of principle of constitutionality
- inferences
- individual skill
principle of constitutionality
word meanings and how they are combined, how we combine words affects how we interpret them
what are the readers assumptions about a text
the text is coherent and cohesive (events remain stable)
what are inferences?
the process of developing information beyond the literal meaning of text
types of inferences
- logical interferences
- bridging
- elaborative
logical interferences
based on word meaning
- e.g. if we hear fish, we know it lives in the sea
bridging interferences
relating new words to previous heard information to maintain coherence
elaborative inferences
extending the text with your own knowledge to become indistinguishable from the original material
- e.g. ‘the actor fell from the 14th floor’ > we assume she is dead we we know that is life threatening
“frame problem” in inferencing
how the current statement interacts with world knowledge, and where inferences should be stopped
approaches to inferencing
- minimalist
- constructionist
- hybrid
minimalist approach
only two kinds of inferences are encoded during automatic reading
- those necessary for local coherence, connections between sentences no further than 1-2 apart
- easy available information in STM
minimalist approach critique
- explains logical and bridging inferences
- however elabortaive inferences arent automatically made, contradicting the approach
constructionist approach/ critique
-numerous elaborative inferences are drawn immediately during reading
- strong version not well supported as we cannot distinguish between elaborations
hybrid approach
minimalist and constructionist reading is used depending on the goals
why do we draw inferences according to the hybrid approach
- drawing inferences can be strategic and depend on individual differences
what do language users tend to use instead of in-depth processing?
good enough representations
good enough representations
using fast and frugal heuristics to arrive as a good enough interpretation
- sufficient in most cases and driven by assumptions
- can lead to misconceptions and errors in interpretation
less skilled comprehenders…
- draw fewer inferences
- poorer integration of meaning across sentences
- less skilled at suppression
what are individual differences in comprehension related to?
- differences in verbal working memory, measured by reading span
- attention
- suppression of irrelevant or inappropriate material
what does suppression involve?
suppressing the inappropriate meaning of homonyms or rejecting the incorrect form of homophones
what does essentialism refer to?
- Something essential in natural kind that stays the same even if you transform it
- An essential underlying quality (DNA)
natural kinds
judgements are identified based on innate, underlying qualities
artefacts
judgements based on superficial, perceptual features (not essentialist)
Children and essentialism
Children tend to rely on perceptual features with both artefacts and animal kinds
Indicates young children don’t apply essentialist reasoning
theory of mind involves…
the ability to understand people have different world views and mental states
this is crucial for communication and language understanding
emerges around 3-4yrs old
there is evidence of _________ essentialist reasoning regardless of prompting. what does this show
immediate
- psychological essentialist reasoning is an automatic process
natural kinds (TOM)
no evidence that inferences are based on what people know is made automatically
artefacts (TOM)
unclear; can be explained by reader’s own perspective taking
