Week 9: Semantic Interpretation

Question 1

Eye-tracking

Answer 1

Method for investigating pre-lexical and lexical semantic processing

We fixate to ‘candidate’ visual objects as the sentence and words unfold

Question 2

Effects of shape similarity

Answer 2

Similar shaped objects - e.g. snake, rope - are fixated more than non-similar objects during lexical processing

Question 3

Effects of semantic shape similarity

Answer 3

Similar semantic objects - e.g. piano, trumpet - are fixated more than non-similar objects during lexical processing

Question 4

Potential effects of colour similarity

Answer 4

Hypothesis: similar coloured objects - e.g. frog, spinach - are fixated more than non-similar objects during lexical processing

Results: no clear strong effect of stored colour knowledge, at least when objects are greyscale

Question 5

Language-driven event expectations

Answer 5

Verb selection affects anticipatory eye movements

Mediated by speech rate and literacy of participants

Question 6

Coercion

Answer 6

Aka enriched composition

We anticipate objects related to dominant interpretation (e.g. painting, brushes)

Interpretation: serial coercion process

Question 7

Incremental semantic interpretation

Answer 7

Interpretation is usually incremental, and often expectation-based

Question 8

Overspecification

Answer 8

25-60% of the time, we use unnecessary ‘pre-nominal’ adjectives e.g. the red book

Breaks Grice’s quantity maxim