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The interaction of prosodic phrasing, verb bias, and plausibility during spoken sentence comprehension

Blodgett, Allison Ruth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1085953482

Abstract Details

2004, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Linguistics.
Three cross-modal naming experiments revealed the interaction of prosodic phrasing, verb bias, and plausibility during spoken language comprehension in English. Each experiment investigated the online resolution of a temporary syntactic closure ambiguity (e.g., Whenever the lady checks the room) across three verb bias sets: transitive-bias, equi-bias, intransitive-bias. Experiments 1 and 2 used auditory stimuli that ended with the structurally ambiguous NP. Whereas Experiment 1 used intonation phrase (IP) boundaries, Experiment 2 used intermediate phrase (ip) boundaries. Phrase boundaries occurred either before or after the structurally ambiguous NP. Experiment 3 used auditory stimuli that ended with the verb in one of three phrase boundary conditions: no boundary, ip, or IP. The results provide new evidence that IP boundary location can determine the initial syntactic structure for these closure ambiguities—regardless of verb bias. The results support previous claims that IP boundaries trigger semantic wrap-up, and they provide new evidence that these boundaries trigger syntactic wrap-up as well. Although these wrap-up processes helped disambiguate the closure ambiguity, other prosodic and lexical factors were also involved. When wrap-up occurred at a transitive-bias verb, it resulted in syntactic and semantic representations that conflicted in terms of transitivity. Resolution of this conflict depended on the location of the structurally ambiguous NP within the global prosodic representation and the predictability of that NP as a direct object. The results further suggest that ip boundaries and verb bias both influenced the initial parse. However, only the combination of an intransitive-bias verb and an early ip boundary might have led to an initial early closure structure. Because the current materials suffer from a late closure bias, the results might suggest that ip boundaries function like plausibility. That is, ip boundaries can determine the initial syntactic structure, but only when auditory fragments equally support syntactic alternatives. The results are most consistent with the phon-concurrent model—a new constraint-based lexicalist account in which prosody and verb bias influence the initial parse and in which wrap-up mechanisms can trigger commitment to conflicting syntactic and semantic representations.
Shari Speer (Advisor)
229 p.
prosody; parsing; verb bias; plausibility; prosodic phrasing; ambiguity resolution

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Blodgett, A. R. (2004). The interaction of prosodic phrasing, verb bias, and plausibility during spoken sentence comprehension [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1085953482

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Blodgett, Allison. The interaction of prosodic phrasing, verb bias, and plausibility during spoken sentence comprehension. 2004. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1085953482.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Blodgett, Allison. "The interaction of prosodic phrasing, verb bias, and plausibility during spoken sentence comprehension." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1085953482

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1085953482
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© 2004, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.