Dynamics of semantic processing: The interpretation of bare quantifiers

Frank Wijnen, Edith Kaan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

A bare cardinal, such as "four" in the fragment "Five ships sailed out. Four ... ", can be interpreted in at least three ways: (1) as four of the five ships mentioned (a "forward directional" reading); (2) as four other ships (a parallel reading); or (3) as four different entities (a non-anaphoric reading). The first reading is preferred, although this preference can be influenced by various factors. In the present study, we investigated at which point during on-line processing bare cardinals are interpreted. Results from a completion task, a difficulty rating task, and an on-line incremental acceptability judgement task suggest that there is an immediate preference to interpret bare cardinals as forward directional, leading to processing difficulty at the cardinal when it is not compatible with such an interpretation (as in "Five ships sailed out. Six ... "). However when later information at the verb contradicts a forward directionality reading, revision into a parallel reading is almost effortless.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)684-720
Number of pages37
JournalLanguage and Cognitive Processes
Volume21
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Sept 2006

Keywords

  • adult
  • article
  • controlled study
  • decision making
  • dynamics
  • experimental design
  • female
  • human
  • human experiment
  • information processing
  • language processing
  • male
  • normal human
  • online analysis
  • priority journal
  • questionnaire
  • reading
  • semantics
  • statistical analysis
  • task performance

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