Implicit prosody and parsing in silent reading

Abstract

BackgroundThe current study explored the effect of implicit prosody on syntactic parsing in the silent reading of an ambiguous double prepositional phrase (PP) construction in Hebrew by employing the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis test (Fodor, ).MethodThe parsing preferences of the construction in silent reading were tested and compared to those in a reading aloud study (Webman‐Shafran & Fodor, ) containing the same experimental material.ResultsThe parsing results were remarkably similar.ConclusionsIt is suggested that implicit prosody was responsible for syntactic ambiguity resolution preferences in silent reading in the current study in the same way as overt prosody in reading aloud in Webman‐Shafran and Fodor (). This study supports the assumption that reading prosody is projected in silent reading and affects comprehension.ImplicationsThe contribution of implicit prosody to the reading process may have important implications for reading instruction in FLA, SLA and reading disorder intervention programs.