Direct speech quotations promote low relative-clause attachment in silent reading of English

Yao, B. and Scheepers, C. (2018) Direct speech quotations promote low relative-clause attachment in silent reading of English. Cognition, 176, pp. 248-254. (doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.03.017) (PMID:29609099)

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Abstract

The implicit prosody hypothesis (Fodor, 1998, 2002) proposes that silent reading coincides with a default, implicit form of prosody to facilitate sentence processing. Recent research demonstrated that a more vivid form of implicit prosody is mentally simulated during silent reading of direct speech quotations (e.g., Mary said, “This dress is beautiful”), with neural and behavioural consequences (e.g., Yao, Belin, & Scheepers, 2011; Yao & Scheepers, 2011). Here, we explored the relation between ‘default’ and ‘simulated’ implicit prosody in the context of relative-clause (RC) attachment in English. Apart from confirming a general low RC-attachment preference in both production (Experiment 1) and comprehension (Experiments 2 and 3), we found that during written sentence completion (Experiment 1) or when reading silently (Experiment 2), the low RC-attachment preference was reliably enhanced when the critical sentences were embedded in direct speech quotations as compared to indirect speech or narrative sentences. However, when reading aloud (Experiment 3), direct speech did not enhance the general low RC-attachment preference. The results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest a quantitative boost to implicit prosody (via auditory perceptual simulation) during silent production/comprehension of direct speech. By contrast, when reading aloud (Experiment 3), prosody becomes equally salient across conditions due to its explicit nature; indirect speech and narrative sentences thus become as susceptible to prosody-induced syntactic biases as direct speech. The present findings suggest a shared cognitive basis between default implicit prosody and simulated implicit prosody, providing a new platform for studying the effects of implicit prosody on sentence processing.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research was supported by Economic and Social Research Council Grant [ES/N002784/1] to B. Yao.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Scheepers, Dr Christoph
Authors: Yao, B., and Scheepers, C.
Subjects:B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
P Language and Literature > PE English
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
Journal Name:Cognition
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0010-0277
ISSN (Online):0010-0277
Published Online:31 March 2018
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
First Published:First published in Cognition 176:248-254
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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