Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Shapiro, Lewis P.
Abstract
This project investigates how subjects' preferences for a specific argument structure of a verb affect the on-line processing of sentences. Three experiments are conducted. The first experiment uses a forced choice task to gather preference ratings for several verbs. The second and third experiments use these preference ratings to examine on-line performance for a subset of the subjects participating in Experiment I. We find that a subject's preference for a specific argument structure influences the first pass analysis of sentence but that this effect may be overridden by a structural effect in sentences containing syntactic ambiguities. These results are discussed in terms of lexical guidance vs. phrase structure-driven models of sentence processing. It is concluded that both lexical and phrase structure information are utilized during first pass analysis of a sentence, but that the structure of a sentence determines which of these effects is measurably observable.
Extent
70 p.
Recommended Citation
Nagel, Harold Nicholas, "Argument structure preference and phrase structure effects during sentence processing" (1992). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 265.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/265
Identifier
FADT14789
Comments
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.