title: Phrase Length and Prosody in On-Line Ambiguity Resolution.
abstract: We investigated the processing of ambiguous double-PP constructions in Hebrew. Selection restrictions forced the first prepositional phrase (PP1) to attach low, but PP2 could attach maximally high to VP or maximally low to the NP inside PP1. A length contrast in PP2 was also examined. This construction affords more potential locations for prosodic boundaries, and has a sharper structural contrast between the two attachment sites, than the single-PP construction which has yielded mixed results in previous work. A combined production-comprehension task showed more productions of pre-PP2 prosodic boundaries for long-PP2 than short-PP2. In comprehension, high PP2-attachment was favored by a prosodic boundary before PP2, regardless of PP2 length. This study provides performance data supporting the interplay of phrase lengths with structure-sensitivity as posited in the linguistics literature on the syntax-prosody interface, and supports the claim that readers are sensitive to the structural implications of the prosody they project onto sentences.
authors.affiliation: , 49B Golomb Street, 4435749, Kefar Sava, Israel. Ronit.shafran@gmail.com.|The English Department, Faculty of Education, Beit Berl College, 4490500, Beit Berl, Israel. Ronit.shafran@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ronit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Webman-Shafran
authors.affiliation: Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Janet Dean
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fodor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011932:Reading; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: PP-attachment; Phrase lengths; Reading aloud; Sentence comprehension; Syntax–prosody interface