Syntax first
المؤلف:
Paul Warren
المصدر:
Introducing Psycholinguistics
الجزء والصفحة:
P180
2025-11-10
95
Syntax first
Recall that the parsing strategies approach supported by the studies presented in Chapter 10 is fundamentally syntax-driven. A strong claim made by some proponents of this approach is that syntax sentence constituent structure is logically independent of semantics meaning, including sentence meaning. This independence has been demonstrated by linguists using sentences such as those in (11.11) made famous by the linguist Noam Chomsky and (11.12).
The significance of such sentences is that they are syntactically well formed, despite being semantically anomalous (Chomsky, 1957). That is, native speakers generally agree that these are well-formed sentences, even though they find it difficult to interpret their meaning. In fact, rather than dismiss such sentences out of hand, native speakers will often try to construct some – often poetic – interpretation.
If linguists claim that syntactic sentence structure is independent of meaning, then it is not surprising that psycholinguists would look for evidence that syntactic structure is independent of meaning during sentence processing. Note that this is not a claim that other non-syntactic sources of information are not important in processing. Rather, it is a claim for the separation of syntactic from other information, at some stage during sentence processing. For instance, a major proposal from the parsing strategies approach has been that syntactic considerations determine the initial and preferred structural analysis of a sentence, which is then compared with a semantic interpretation generated by a separate thematic processor. If the semantic interpretation is incompatible with the initial syntactic analysis, then a revision is necessary.
Such a position leads to claims about behavioural patterns in sentence comprehension tasks, for example in studies of eye movements during reading. Initial syntactic analysis should proceed without reference to the meaning or plausibility of a sentence. Any influence on reading times in what is known as the first-pass analysis, such as slowing down of reading when a garden path is encountered, should instead be attributable to syntactic factors. Non-syntactic factors should only affect later, second pass analysis, including regressions, i.e. the re-reading that is required for the reader to come up with a revised syntactic analysis. Note though that some of the regressions will be syntactically determined, as a consequence of encountering words that have a syntactic description that does not fit the initially preferred analysis.
This separation of syntactic and other information during processing would clearly receive compelling support if the garden path experiences discussed in Chapter 10 occurred irrespective of the meaningfulness of a sentence. One set of studies (Ferreira & Clifton, 1986) took as its starting point eye-movement patterns for participants reading sentences containing reduced relative clauses, such as (11.13).
In accordance with the Minimal Attachment strategy, the parsing preference for (11.13) is that the verb examined is taken to be a past tense verb, rather than the past participle form that would be part of the reduced relative. However, this preferred analysis turns out to be the wrong one in (11.13), as becomes clear when readers encounter the phrase beginning with. This should result in a garden path experience, and a re-analysis of the earlier part of the sentence. Note that this preference is blocked in (11.14) by the explicit structural marking of the relative clause, i.e. the presence of a as rules out this past tense verb interpretation.
The test, then, of a syntax-first approach is whether the garden path experience is found regardless of the plausibility of the past tense interpretation of verbs like examined. This plausibility was manipulated by changing the preceding noun. In sentence (11.13) it is entirely plausible that defendant might examine something e.g. a document, and so the past tense verb reading of (11.13) is initially both syntactically and semantically acceptable. However, an inanimate object such as evidence does not examine other things, and so the past tense interpretation of the sentence in (11.15) should be implausible.
Note that sentence 11.15 is syntactically identical to 11.13, so on syn tactic grounds, garden-pathing should still be expected. What was found in the reading experiment was the same pattern of eye movements for (11.15) and (11.13), despite the implausibility of evidence examining something else. In addition, the same difference in reading times was found between (11.15) and the form with the unreduced relative in (11.16) as was found between (11.13) and (11.14). The interpretation of this set of results was that the syntactic preference for examined as a past tense verb persists, despite the semantic implausibility of that preference in (11.15).
To take another example, in both sentences (11.17) and (11.18) we again have reduced relative structures (reduced from … who was sent the flowers…). (11.17) is however less plausible than sentence (11.18), because florists tend to send flowers, but performers are likely to be sent flowers. et readers experience garden paths equally on both. On the other hand, (11.19) is rather implausible, but does not show garden path effects. The most coherent explanation of this set of results, it is argued, is that the purely syntactic principle of Minimal Attachment is being followed in each case, resulting in the past tense interpretation of se in each sentence, regardless of plausibility (Rayner, Carlson & Frazier, 1983).
These are just two examples of a range of studies that have maintained both the independence and the primacy of syntactic analysis of sentences. That is, the theoretical perspective of the researchers is that syntactic analysis can proceed without reference to other sources of information and that this syntactic analysis is the driving force behind sentence processing.
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