The interaction of perceptual processes and ambiguous sentences

It is argued that during all ambiguous clause, both meanings are processed, but immediately after the clause over, it recoded with only one meaning retained, predicting that underlying structure ambiguity m incomplete clauses increases Comprehension time.

Abstract

General principles of speech perception resolve several experimental conflicts about whether listeners interpret one or all meanings of an ambiguous sentence We argue that during all ambiguous clause, both meanings are processed, but immediately after the clause over, it recoded with only one meaning retained This model resolves the apparently conflicting results of previous experimental, it also predicts that underlying structure ambiguity m incomplete clauses increases Comprehension time In complete clauses, ambiguity does not increase relative comprehension time; it mayreduce comprehension time for ambiguities whose interpretations are perceptually distinct in those tasks where either meaning is appropriate Two new experiments offer preliminary confirmation of these predictions.