title: Sentence processing in the visual and auditory modality: do comma and prosodic break have parallel functions?
abstract: Two Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies contrast the processing of locally ambiguous sentences in the visual and the auditory modality. These sentences are disambiguated by a lexical element. Before this element appears in a sentence, the sentence can also be disambiguated by a boundary marker: a comma in the visual modality, or a prosodic break in the auditory modality. Previous studies have shown that a specific ERP component, the Closure Positive Shift (CPS), can be elicited by these markers. The results of the present studies show that both the comma and the prosodic break disambiguate the ambiguous sentences before the critical lexical element, despite the fact that a clear CPS is only found in the auditory modality. Comma and prosodic break thus have parallel functions irrespective of whether they do or do not elicit a CPS.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kerkhofs
authors.forename: Wietske
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vonk
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schriefers
authors.forename: Dorothee J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Chwilla
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology