Show simple item record

The Influence of Prosodic Boundaries in Syntactic Interpretation

dc.contributor.advisorWatson, Duane G
dc.creatorHarrington Stack, Caoimhe M.
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-22T22:16:17Z
dc.date.created2020-05
dc.date.issued2020-03-31
dc.date.submittedMay 2020
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1803/16058
dc.description.abstractProsodic boundaries can influence how listeners choose to interpret the syntactic structure of utterances. This is especially clear in ambiguous phrases which have two potential underlying syntactic structures. While this prosodic effect is robust, it is not fully understood why listeners have a bias to use the location of a prosodic boundary to infer underlying syntax. Two models of language processing, the Visibility Hypothesis and the Ideal Adapter Framework, and their predictions regarding the boundary-syntax relationship are investigated in six experiments. The Visibility Hypothesis argues that prosodic boundary effects are the result of natural processing constraints, while the Ideal Adapter Framework argues for malleable language comprehension which is based on the distribution of linguistic cues in an environment. The effect of boundaries on syntactic interpretation is replicated but there is a failure to find evidence that fully supports either theory fully. Potential explanations for the failure to find support for either theory is discussed.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectPROSODY
dc.subjectPROSODIC BOUNDARIES
dc.subjectSENTENCE PROCESSING, VISIBILITY HYPOTHESIS
dc.subjectADAPTATION
dc.titleThe Influence of Prosodic Boundaries in Syntactic Interpretation
dc.typeThesis
dc.date.updated2020-09-22T22:16:18Z
dc.type.materialtext
thesis.degree.namePhD
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychology
thesis.degree.grantorVanderbilt University Graduate School
local.embargo.terms2021-05-01
local.embargo.lift2021-05-01
dc.creator.orcid0000-0001-9280-5778


Files in this item

Icon

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record