Strategies for Parsing Syntactically Ambiguous Sentences by Japanese Learners of English(Psycholinguistics) (original) (raw)
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2014
In this paper the question of how advanced learners of English process syntactica]Iy ambiguous sentences is investigated, First, some recent I.1 studies investigating huinan sentence processing were reviewed, Then, the results of two experiments which explored how Japanese learners of English process sentences were reported, The subjects were presented with syntactically ambiguous English sentences segmented into some parts on the computer screen. For Experiment I, sentences containing transitive verbs and intransitive v rbs were presented. For Experiment II, sentences containing verbs which were predominantly used in direct-object
The Effects of Context on the Strategies in Sentence Processing by Japanese Learners of English
1991
The purpose of the present study is to i~vestigate whether context affects the learner's on-line sentence processing. Yoshida (in press) found that Japanese advanced learners of English processed a sentence based on lexical forms retrieved from verbs. The results of the experiment showed that transitivity and the type of the complement structures affected the learner's on-line processing. when the sentence structure of the incoming material was not consistent with the lexical form the learner expected to appear, then, they needed to reanalyze the sentence and spent longer time. In the present study context which was relevant to the experimental sentence was presented, and whether contextual information affects learner's on-line sentence processing was investigated. HOIJever, the result showed no effect of the context IJas found. The possible factors which accounted for this result were discussed. 1. On-Line Sentence Processing One of the central issues in the study of hu...
Off-line Syntactic Processing Strategies for Japanese EFL Learners
2006
This paper has been revised and elaborated by adding subsequent research findings including more experimental data to Terauchi (a), (b). Research question 1: What sort of processing has the priority in the sentence-level processing? Hypothesis 1.1 In a single sentence level condition, the priority is, in principle, given to syntactic processing over semantic processing particularly in the initial parsing decision. Hypothesis 1.2 The subjects who put a priority on syntactic processing are inclined to process, and/or interpret the sentences which are difficult to parse, or the garden path sentences, more accurately and appropriately than the subjects who put a priority on semantic processing. 1.1 The theoretical premise for making hypothesis 1.1 and 1.2 Both hypothesis 1.1 and 1.2 are formed specifically on the foundation of a syntaxbased account. In the syntax-based account, the comprehension process can be generally regarded as 'the application of autonomous syntactic principles' (Juffs and Harrington,
The processing of ambiguous sentences by first and second language learners of English
Applied Psycholinguistics, 2003
This study investigates the way adult second language (L2) learners of English resolve relative clause attachment ambiguities in sentences such as The dean liked the secretary of the professor who was reading a letter. Two groups of advanced L2 learners of English with Greek or German as their first language participated in a set of off-line and on-line tasks. The results indicate that the L2 learners do not process ambiguous sentences of this type in the same way as adult native speakers of English do. Although the learners' disambiguation preferences were influenced by lexical–semantic properties of the preposition linking the two potential antecedent noun phrases (of vs. with), there was no evidence that they applied any phrase structure–based ambiguity resolution strategies of the kind that have been claimed to influence sentence processing in monolingual adults. The L2 learners' performance also differs markedly from the results obtained from 6- to 7-year-old monolingua...
This study investigates the way adult second language learners of English resolve relative clause attachment ambiguities in sentences such as The dean liked the secretary of the professor who was reading a letter. Two groups of advanced L2 learners of English with Greek or German as their L1 participated in a set of off-line and on-line tasks. The results indicate that the L2 learners do not process ambiguous sentences of the above type in the same way as adult native speakers of English do. While the learners' disambiguation preferences were influenced by lexical-semantic properties of the preposition linking the two potential antecedent NPs (of vs. with), there was no evidence that they were applying any phrase-structure based ambiguity resolution strategies of the kind that have been claimed to influence sentence processing in monolingual adults. The L2 learners' performance also differs markedly from the results obtained from 6 to 7 year-old monolingual English children in a parallel auditory study (Felser, Marinis, & Clahsen, submitted) in that the children's attachment preferences were not affected by the type of preposition at all.
Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2020
This study shed light on the role of syntax and pragmatics in interpreting ambiguous sentences. The purpose of this research was to examine to what extent syntax and pragmatics help foreign language learners interpret the deep meaning of English ambiguous sentences. This study was designed to cover two groups (control and experimental). The control group was sophomore students who have not registered yet in either pragmatics or syntax. For the experimental group, the participants were senior students who had taken the two courses: syntax and pragmatics which was the treatment of this study. Both groups were majoring in applied linguistics. A quantitative approach was used in order to collect the data. The research tool was a diagnostic test. The result of this study showed a noticeable effect of taking pragmatics and syntax courses on the interpretation of ambiguous sentences. This result indicated that the students who took syntax and pragmatics courses performed better in interpreting the ambiguous sentences. The data and the finding of this study were collected and analysed to hopefully help future students from different majors such as law, and other students in the legal field in resolving the ambiguity of the sentences.
Syntactic ambiguity resolution while reading in second and native languages
The Quarterly Journal of …, 1997
Bilinguals' reading strategies were examined in their native and second language via the recording of eye movements. Experiment 1 examined the processing of sentences that contained local syntactic ambiguities. Results showed that bilinguals reading in their second language tended to resolve these ambiguities in a different way from native readers. Bilinguals tended to prefer to attach incoming information to the most recently processed constituent. However, this global strategy was in¯uenced by lexical information provided by the verb. Moreover, the combined analysis of both groups of readers revealed an in¯uence of verb subcategorization information on syntactic ambiguity resolution. Experiment 2 also examined syntactic ambiguity resolution in the native and second language, for sentences that were ambiguous in only one of the bilinguals' two languages. Results showed that bilinguals hesitated when reading in their second language at points in the sentence where their native language presented con¯icting lexical information. Following this localized effect of``transfer'', however, bilinguals performed in a manner similar to native speakers of the language. In combination, these experiments demonstrate that bilinguals perform a complete syntactic parsing of sentences when reading in the second language, and they do so in a manner similar to native speakers. Although lexical information can apparently in¯uence parsing in the second language, our results do not provide strong evidence that it acts to override syntactic analysis based on structural principles.