Processing local and unbounded dependencies: A unified account

This paper proposes an account of incremental sentence processing and the initial stage of syntactic ambiguity resolution, based on the claim that the processor seeks to provide semantic interpretations for sentence fragments as soon as it possibly can. In this model, there is no fundamental distinction between local and unbounded dependencies. The processor employs a version of categorial grammar based on dependency grammar, in which dependency constituents are derived from dependencies between words and are permitted to overlap. The processor seeks to form dependency constituents as soon as it can, and to give interpretations to these fragments immediately. The initial stage of ambiguity resolution is determined by theprinciple of dependency formation, under which the processor automatically chooses an analysis that allows a single dependency constituent to be formed in preference to one that does not. The motivation is semantic: Such an analysis maximizes the amount of incremental interpretation that is possible. But if more than one analysis is compatible with the formation of a single constituent, the processor can appeal to a range of sources of nonsyntactic information in making its choice. I show how this account can capture a range of psycholinguistic evidence without positing any fundamental distinction between local and unbounded dependencies.     

Processing syntactically ambiguous sentences: Evidence from semantic priming

In this paper, we report the results of a study which investigates the processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences. We examined the processing of sentences in which an embedded clause is interpretable as either a complement clause or as a relative clause, as in, for example,The receptionist informed the doctor that the journalist had phoned about the events. The embedded clause in such sentences is typically analyzed as a complement to the verbinformed, rather than as a relative clause modifyingthe doctor. A number of models parsing predict this is the only analysis ever considered, while others predict that both interpretations are computed in parallel. Using a cross-model semantic priming technique, we probed for activation ofdoctor just after the embedded verb. Since only the relative clause analysis contains a connection betweenthe doctor and the embedded verb, we expected reactivation ofdoctor at that point only if the relative clause analysis were a viable option. Our results suggest that this is the case: Compared to priming in an ambiguous control sentence, a significant reactivation effect was obtained. These results are argued to support a model of parsing in which attachment of a clause may be delayed.The research reported here was supported in part by a grant from the McDonnell-Pew Cognitive Neurosciences Program, in part by grant DC-01409 (a research and training grant funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders), and in part by a SERC postdoctoral fellowship B/90/ITF/293. We are grateful to Andrew Barss, Paul Bloom, Merrill Garrett, David Swinney, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Paul Gorrell for extremely useful discussion of parsing issues. We thank Suzanne Delaney for giving voice to our stimulus sentences. The results of this study were presented at the Fifth Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, New York, March 1992.Order of authors is alphabetical.     

Reading time evidence for enriched composition

Verbs like 'begin' and 'enjoy' appear to semantically select a complement that expresses an activity or an event (Jackendoff, R. (1997). The architecture of the language faculty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Pustejovsky, J. Cognition 41 (1991) 47; Pustejovsky, J. (1995). The generative lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press). When these verbs occur with a complement that does not directly denote either an activity or an event (e.g. '... began the book' or '... enjoyed the book'), the complement must be type-shifted from an object to an activity to conform to the verb's semantic restrictions. We report an experiment in which self-paced reading times were found to be longer for complements that required type-shifting than for complements that directly matched the semantic restrictions of the matrix verb. This finding is argued to provide on-line evidence for a type of enriched lexical processing posited in recent lexical semantic research.     

Modifying Children's Gender-Typed Musical Instrument Preferences: The Effects of Gender and Age

Previous research has indicated that children display gender-typed musical instrument preferences. Two studies were conducted to determine (a) whether these preferences can be modified by presenting counter-examples (i.e., instruments played by gender-inappropriate musicians) and (b) whether child gender or age (kindergarten vs. 4th grade) influences the efficacy of such interventions. A videotape presentation format was employed in Study 1 and drawings in Study 2. Children exposed to counter-examples were less stereotyped than those who saw the instruments without musicians (Study 1) or with gender-appropriate musicians (Studies 1 & 2). Age did not influence children's responsiveness to the counter-examples, but boys were more resistant to the intervention than girls. There was some evidence that the counter-examples were effective not simply because children were attracted to same-sex musicians. Instead, children's instrument choices also appeared to be motivated by a desire to avoid behaving like musicians of the other-sex. Potential strategies for increasing children's responsiveness to instrument counter-examples (e.g., multiple exemplars; portrayal of positive consequences) were also discussed.     

Novel Labels Increase Category Coherence,But Only When People Have the Goal to Coordinate

From infancy, we recognize that labels denote category membership and help us to identify the critical features that objects within a category share. Labels not only reflect how we categorize, but also allow us to communicate and share categories with others. Given the special status of labels as markers of category membership, do novel labels (i.e., non‐words) affect the way in which adults select dimensions for categorization in unsupervised settings? Additionally, is the purpose of this effect primarily coordinative (i.e., do labels promote shared understanding of how we categorize objects)? To address this, we conducted two experiments in which participants individually categorized images of mountains with or without novel labels, and with or without a goal of coordination, within a non‐communicative paradigm. People who sorted items with novel labels had more similar categories than people who sorted without labels only when they were told that their categories should make sense to other people, and not otherwise. We argue that sorters' goals determine whether novel labels promote the development of socially coherent categories.     

The effect of noun phrase length on the form of referring expressions

The length of a noun phrase has been shown to influence choices such as syntactic role assignment (e.g., whether the noun phrase is realized as the subject or the object). But does length also affect the choice between different forms of referring expressions? Three experiments investigated the effect of antecedent length on the choice between pronouns (e.g., he) and repeated nouns (e.g., the actor) using a sentence-continuation paradigm. Experiments 1 and 2 found an effect of antecedent length on written continuations: Participants used more pronouns (relative to repeated nouns) when the antecedent was longer than when it was shorter. Experiment 3 used a spoken continuation task and replicated the effect of antecedent length on the choice of referring expressions. Taken together, the results suggest that longer antecedents increase the likelihood of pronominal reference. The results support theories arguing that length enhances the accessibility of the associated entity through richer semantic encoding.     

Book reviews

Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1992, 654 pp. ISBN 0–300–053425–8.

Harvey Ferguson, Religious Transformation in Western Society: The End of Happiness. London and New York, Routledge, 1992, xvi, 269 pp. ISBN 0–415–02574–5.

Religiones Latinoamericanas 1 (Religiones: Cuestiones Tcoricometodoiogicas), Mexico City, Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones. January‐June 1991.

Revista de Estudios Budistas I, 1, Mexico City, Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios Budistas. April 1991.

Koichi Shinohara and Gregory Schopen (eds), From Benares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religion. Canada, Mosaic Press, 1992, 304 pp. ISBN 0–88962–443–7.

Robert E. Buswell, Jr and Robert M. Gimello (eds), Paths to Liberation: The Mārga and its Transformations in Buddhist Thought. Honolulu: Kuroda Institute, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, ix, 525 pp.

Susan Grossman and Rivka Haut (eds), Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue. New York, The Jewish Publication Society, 1992, i‐340 pp. ISBN 0–8276–0395–9.

Akbar S. Ahmed, Resistance and Control in Pakistan. London, Routledge, 1991. 2nd edition, first published in 1983 under the tide Religion and Politics in Muslim Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, xx + 207 pp., £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–415–05797–3.

Garry Wills, Under God: Religion and American Politics. New York and London, Simon and Schuster, 1990, 445 pp., £17.99 (hardback), £9.99 (paperback).

J. Andrew Overman and Robert S. MacLennan (eds), Diaspora Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of and in Dialogue with, A. Thomas Kraabel. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 41, Atlanta, GA, Scholars Press, 1992, xviii + 368 pp., no price given. ISBN 1 55540 696 3.

Christine Trevett, Women and Quakerism in the 17th Century. York, Sessions Book Trust, The Ebor Pess, 1991, 171 pp.

Jan Peter Schouten, Revolution of the Mystics: On the Social Aspects of Viraiaivism. Kampcn, The Netherlands, Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991, xiii + 331 pp. ISBN 90 242 3425 5.

Michael L. Budde, The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1992, 172 pp., £25.00. ISBN 0–8223–1229–8.

Teun Goudriaan (ed.), Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honor of André Padoux. SUNY Series in Tantric Studies, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1992, xv + 359 pp. ISBN 0–7914–0898–1.

Robert S. Shepard, God's People in the Ivory Tower: Religion in the Early American University. Brooklyn, Carlson, 1991, 174 pp. $50.00. ISBN 0–926019–56–2.