Noun Animacy Constraints on English Sentence Completion by Taiwanese English Learners

Abstract

Through different tasks, relevant studies showed that noun animacy cue plays an important role in sentence processing. Very few studies explored the cue in sentence completion task in which the process of producing sentences is based on the process of comprehending the sequential words provided. Using a sentence completion task, the present study aimed to increase current understanding of the role of noun animacy cue in the completion of noun/verb sequences, which are the ambiguous parts of main verb (MV) versus reduced relative clause (RRC) ambiguities, as sentences with MV and/or RRC readings by 31 English-major freshmen in Taiwan. Chi-Square tests and ANOVA results showed that noun animacy cue did influence or constrain such completion. The noun animacy constraints, however, signaled the preference for the minimal attachment strategy. The finding is argued to indicate that the development of optimal sensitivity to the relationship between thematic role information and syntactic structure might be accelerated by explicit instruction and repeated explanation in English language classroom.