title: Focus identification during sentence comprehension: evidence from eye movements.
abstract: Three eye movement experiments investigated focus identification during sentence comprehension. Participants read dative or double-object sentences (i.e., either the direct or indirect object occurred first), and a replacive continuation supplied a contrast that was congruous with either the direct or the indirect object. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated focus by locating only adjacent to either the direct or indirect object of dative (Experiment 1) or double-object (Experiment 2) sentences. Reading-time effects indicated that the surface position of the focus particle influenced processing. In addition, Experiment 1 reading times were longer when the replacive was incongruous with the constituent that only adjoined, and particle position modulated a similar effect in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 showed that this effect was absent when only was omitted. We conclude that the surface position of a focus particle modulates focus identification during on-line sentence comprehension.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. kbp3@le.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kevin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.forename: Simon P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Liversedge
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Filik
authors.forename: Barbara J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Juhasz
authors.forename: Sarah J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rayner
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception