The architecture underlying syntactic processing
In this thesis, I report five eyetracking experiments that tested current sentence processing theories. So far, most research has attempted to discriminate between various sentence processing theories by investigating whether non-syntactic sources of information can be employed immediately in syntactic ambiguity resolution. Two-stage theories such as the garden-path theory claim that the use of non-syntactic information is delayed, whereas interactive or constraint-based theories claim that all sources of information can be employed immediately. The experiments in this thesis focussed on a different aspect of current sentence processing theories, which has been largely ignored. They investigated whether the architecture of the sentence processor involves reanalysis or competition. Two-stage theories claim that processing difficulty occurs when an initially adopted syntactic analysis has to be revised, whereas most current constraint-based theories stipulate that competition between two or more syntactic analyses that are activated in parallel makes a sentence difficult to process. The experiments in this thesis investigated reanalysis and competition by testing globally ambiguous syntactic structures and contrasting
Gompel, Rutger Petrus Gerardus van
Sentence processing theories
The architecture underlying syntactic processing. In this thesis, I report five eyetracking experiments that tested current sentence processing theories. So far, most research has attempted to discriminate between various sentence processing theories by investigating whether non-syntactic sources of information can be employed immediately in syntactic ambiguity resolution. Two-stage theories such as the garden-path theory claim that the use of non-syntactic information is delayed, whereas interactive or constraint-based theories claim that all sources of information can be employed immediately. The experiments in this thesis focussed on a different aspect of current sentence processing theories, which has been largely ignored. They investigated whether the architecture of the sentence processor involves reanalysis or competition. Two-stage theories claim that processing difficulty occurs when an initially adopted syntactic analysis has to be revised, whereas most current constraint-based theories stipulate that competition between two or more syntactic analyses that are activated in parallel makes a sentence difficult to process. The experiments in this thesis investigated reanalysis and competition by testing globally ambiguous syntactic structures and contrasting
architecture underlie syntactic processing report test current sentence_processing theory far attempted discriminate various sentence_processing theory investigate_whether non syntactic source_information employ immediately syntactic ambiguity resolution two_stage theory garden path theory claim use non syntactic information delay whereas interactive constraint_based theory claim source_information employ immediately focus different_aspect current sentence_processing theory largely_ignore investigate_whether architecture sentence processor involve reanalysis competition two_stage theory claim process difficulty occur initially adopt syntactic_analysis revise whereas current constraint_based theory stipulate competition syntactic_analysis activate parallel make sentence difficult process investigate reanalysis competition test globally ambiguous syntactic_structure contrast