Does antecedent complexity affect ellipsis processing?
- In two self-paced reading experiments, we investigated the effect of changes in antecedent complexity on processing times for ellipsis. Pointer- or “sharing”-based approaches to ellipsis processing (Frazier & Clifton 2001, 2005; Martin & McElree 2008) predict no effect of antecedent complexity on reading times at the ellipsis site while other accounts predict increased antecedent complexity to either slow down processing (Murphy 1985) or to speed it up (Hofmeister 2011). Experiment 1 manipulated antecedent complexity and elision, yielding evidence against a speedup at the ellipsis site and in favor of a null effect. In order to investigate possible superficial processing on part of participants, Experiment 2 manipulated the amount of attention required to correctly respond to end-of-sentence comprehension probes, yielding evidence against a complexity-induced slowdown at the ellipsis site. Overall, our results are compatible with pointer-based approaches while casting doubt on the notion that changes antecedent complexity lead toIn two self-paced reading experiments, we investigated the effect of changes in antecedent complexity on processing times for ellipsis. Pointer- or “sharing”-based approaches to ellipsis processing (Frazier & Clifton 2001, 2005; Martin & McElree 2008) predict no effect of antecedent complexity on reading times at the ellipsis site while other accounts predict increased antecedent complexity to either slow down processing (Murphy 1985) or to speed it up (Hofmeister 2011). Experiment 1 manipulated antecedent complexity and elision, yielding evidence against a speedup at the ellipsis site and in favor of a null effect. In order to investigate possible superficial processing on part of participants, Experiment 2 manipulated the amount of attention required to correctly respond to end-of-sentence comprehension probes, yielding evidence against a complexity-induced slowdown at the ellipsis site. Overall, our results are compatible with pointer-based approaches while casting doubt on the notion that changes antecedent complexity lead to measurable differences in ellipsis processing speed.…
| Author details: | Dario L. J. F. PaapeORCiDGND, Bruno NicenboimORCiDGND, Shravan VasishthORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.290 |
| ISSN: | 2397-1835 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Glossa : a journal of general linguistics |
| Subtitle (English): | An empirical investigation |
| Publisher: | Ubiquity Press |
| Place of publishing: | London |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2017/08/31 |
| Publication year: | 2017 |
| Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
| Release date: | 2017/11/10 |
| Tag: | Bayes factor; antecedent complexity; ellipsis processing; memory pointer; self-paced reading |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| First page: | 1 |
| Last Page: | 29 |
| Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam, Publikationsfonds |
| Funding number: | PA 2017_30 |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
| DDC classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
| Publishing method: | Open Access |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
| External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 350 |
