Parallelism in the production of noun phrases: Experiments and reaction time models.

Abstract

In three experiments, we investigate the temporal coordination of the processes involved in the production of noun phrases. Native speakers of German described drawings of colored objects by noun phrases with or without a determiner (e.g. (the) red table). Participants received, for varying amounts of time, advance information about either the color or the object. For a small number of nouns in the response set, advance information about the color led to shorter reaction times for no-determiner NPs than for definite determiner NPs. For larger numbers of nouns in the response set, advance information about the object led to an additional reaction time benefit for definite determiner NPs. A mathematical reaction time model is shown to account for these results. This model assumes that articulation can be initiated only after the grammatical encoding of the whole noun phrase has been completed, but that phonological encoding of the first element of an utterance is initiated as soon as the necessary grammatical information has become available.