Selective retention of information about the superficial form of text:ellipses with antecedents in main and subordinate clause

Garnham, Alan and Oakhill, Jane and Cain, Kate (1998) Selective retention of information about the superficial form of text:ellipses with antecedents in main and subordinate clause. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Series a Human Experimental Psychology, 51 (1). pp. 19-39. ISSN 0272-4987

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Abstract

Elliptical verb phrases must be interpreted indirectly, using a representation of the surface form of nearby (usually preceding) text. We used this fact to demonstrate the different availability of superficial representations of the two clauses in main-subordinate pairs. The acceptability of a later ellipsis was reduced when it took its meaning from a main clause that was followed by a subordinate clause, as compared with other combinations. In addition, positive acceptability judgements were made more quickly (1) when the antecedent clause was subordinate, rather than main, suggesting that the superficial form of a subordinate clause is more important, and (2) when the antecedent was in the immediately preceding clause, rather than two clauses back. These results support the idea that the surface form of subordinate clauses is selectively retained until the corresponding main clause has been read, but the surface form of a main clause is not retained after it has been interpreted.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Series a Human Experimental Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3205
Subjects:
?? PSYCHOLOGY(ALL)EXPERIMENTAL AND COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ??
ID Code:
72209
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
18 Dec 2014 09:48
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Sep 2023 01:08