Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Jan;52(1):73-90. doi: 10.3758/s13421-023-01444-0. Epub 2023 Jul 19.
A long-standing question in sentence processing research concerns the online parsing process in clause-boundary garden-path sentences, such as After Mary dressed John bathed. In this sentence, "John" must be parsed as the matrix subject DP but can be locally analysed as the object of the embedded verb. There is considerable evidence that the parser misanalyses these garden-path sentences. However, the controversy lies in whether the parser revises them during the online parsing process. The present study investigated this revision process through two self-paced reading experiments utilising grammatical constraints on reflexives and subject or object relative clauses embedded within the locally ambiguous DP. The results provided evidence of revision when a subject relative clause was embedded but not when an object relative clause was embedded. These findings suggest that the parser assigns grammatical structures that correspond to input strings during the revision of clause-boundary ambiguities but that object relative clauses affect the online revision process.
在句子处理研究中，一个长期存在的问题是从句边界迂回句（如 After Mary dressed John bathed）中的在线解析过程。在这个句子中，“John”必须被解析为主语 DP，但可以局部分析为嵌入式动词的宾语。有大量证据表明解析器错误地分析了这些迂回句。然而，争议在于解析器是否在在线解析过程中对它们进行修正。本研究通过两个自定步速阅读实验，利用反身代词和主语或宾语关系从句对局部歧义 DP 的语法约束，研究了这一修正过程。结果表明，当嵌入主语关系从句时，解析器会进行修正，而当嵌入宾语关系从句时则不会。这些发现表明，在从句边界歧义的修正过程中，解析器会分配与输入字符串相对应的语法结构，但宾语关系从句会影响在线修正过程。
