Interpretation Of Ambiguous Sentences Research Articles

Leaving Obligations Behind: Epistemic Incrementation in Preschool English

ABSTRACT Does language development drive language change? A common account of language change attributes the regularity of certain patterns to children’s learning biases. The present study examines these predictions for change-in-progress in the use of must in Toronto English. Historically, modal verbs like must start with root (deontic) meanings, eventually developing epistemic (probability) meanings in addition. Epistemic uses increase over successive generations, phasing out root uses (incrementation). The modal becomes unambiguously epistemic and eventually disappears from the language. Such cyclic changes are predictable and common across languages. To explore whether children contribute to incrementation and loss, we tested intuitions about must in preschoolers (n = 141) and adults (n = 29). In a picture-preference task (deontic vs. epistemic), children selected epistemic interpretations of ambiguous sentences (e.g., Michelle must swim) at higher rates than adults. Two context-based preference tasks tested children’s overall sensitivity to the presence of modals. We found sensitivity in deontic contexts. In epistemic contexts, where must is optional and functions like an evidential marker, we found little discrimination, and general avoidance of the modal. These results (epistemic overgeneration, must-avoidance) correspond to predictions of the incrementation hypothesis, suggesting children likely play an active role in language change, beyond well-known overregularization processes.

The Nature of Ambiguity across Languages

Ambiguity is a universal phenomenon in processing natural language which is present at phonological, lexical, and grammatical linguistic levels in languages in general and in Arabic and English in particular. A breakdown of communication may take place because of the different interpretations of ambiguous sentences. This paper investigates the interpretations of some Arabic ambiguous sentences in relation to their linguistic content of both English and Arabic languages and it is also an attempt to trace the common ambiguous patterns. It is hypothesized that similar structures of ambiguous sentences may have serious consequences in the intercultural communication. This paper examines Arabic sentences with lexical and structural ambiguity in order to know exactly how the speakers[1] understand these sentences. It is also an attempt to idealize the pragmatic functions of these sentences. Results are evident that factors causing ambiguity are shared among languages, and ambiguity is transferable[2].
 
 [1] of both Arabic and English
 [2] Arabic and English in this case

On the acquisition of distributivity in Yudja

This paper explores the acquisition of distributivity in Yudja (Tupi, Brazil) based on a study with children and adults. In this paper, we explore experimentally the hypothesis discussed in previous work (LIMA, 2008) that verbal reduplication is a pluractional marker (LASERSOHN, 2005) that also conveys distributivity. Two preference tasks were performed with 11 adults and 17 children. Adults’ results show that the interpretation of ambiguous sentences is affected by the form of the noun phrase (conjoined nouns, pluralized nouns or bare nouns). Children’s results suggest that they have an overall preference for a distributive interpretation of sentences regardless of the verb form and the NP type.

Children’s comprehension of two types of syntactic ambiguity

This study asks whether children accept both interpretations of ambiguous sentences with contexts supporting each option. Twenty-six 3- to 5-year-old English-speaking children and a control group of 30 English-speaking adults participated in a truth value judgment task. As a step towards evaluating the complexity of syntactic ambiguity, the materials included prepositional phrase ambiguities (e.g., The boy saw the girl with binoculars.) and reduced relative clause ambiguities (e.g., The boy saw the girl using a magnifying glass.). Children generally accepted both interpretations of such ambiguities. This suggests that children this age have not only mastered the syntactic configurations associated with these ambiguities, but they can appropriately assign multiple possible structural analyses to an individual expression. Children did reject more interpretations than adults. This may be due to differences in the developing parser and the adult parser.

Isomorphism for All (but Not Both): Floating as a Means to Investigate Scope

This article investigates the so-called isomorphism effect (Musolino 1998; Musolino, Crain & Thornton 2000) in the comprehension of scopally ambiguous sentences containing negation and floating quantifiers. Given that floating quantifiers can appear in up to three surface positions relative to negation, I propose that they provide us with the ideal methodological tool to test for scope ambiguity resolution while holding constant various factors, including: (i) the associated noun phrase, and thereby the relevant thematic roles in the test stories; (ii) the syntactic position of the associated noun phrase, and thereby the relevant interpretive mechanism for achieving either a wide or narrow scope construal; (iii) the discourse contexts in which the test sentences are presented. Using a truth value judgment task, I show that both 4-year-olds and adults display isomorphic preferences in their interpretation of ambiguous sentences containing the floating quantifier all, no matter its surface position. In the case of both, children and adults display a preference for isomorphism only when both precedes negation. Crucially, for both quantifiers, children and adults display the same interpretive preferences, lending further support to the general view that children and adults do not differ in their grammatical representations of such scopally ambiguous sentences (Musolino & Lidz 2003, 2006; Gualmini 2004; Conroy, Lidz & Musolino 2009).

Ecstasy (MDMA) does not have long-term effects on aggressive interpretative bias: A study comparing current and ex-ecstasy users with polydrug and drug-naive controls.

+/-3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) remains a widely used recreational drug, which, in animals, can produce long-lasting changes to the brain's serotonergic system. As serotonin has been implicated in human aggression, it is possible that ecstasy users are at risk of increased aggression even after prolonged abstention from the drug. The objective of this study was to indirectly assess aggression in current and abstinent ecstasy users using an information-processing paradigm that measures cognitive bias toward material with aggressive content. The task employed has previously shown increased aggressive bias 3-4 days after ecstasy use. An interpretative bias task was administered to 105 male participants: 26 ex-ecstasy users, 25 current ecstasy users, 29 polydrug using controls, and 25 drug-naive controls. Accuracy and response times to process and recognize ambiguous sentences were tested. There were no group differences in aggressive interpretative bias. All 4 groups processed neutral sentences faster than aggressive sentences and were subsequently faster and more confident in recognizing neutral compared with aggressive sentences. Further, self-ratings of aggression also showed no group differences, even though self-rated impulsivity was significantly higher in current ecstasy users than in drug-naive controls. The findings that all groups were biased toward neutral and away from aggressive interpretations of ambiguous sentences add to the existing body of knowledge in suggesting that increased aggression found in ecstasy users a few days after taking the drug is a transient phenomenon and not a long-term, persisting effect.

Lexical and referential cues to sentence interpretation: an investigation of children's interpretations of ambiguous sentences

This paper reports on an investigation of children's (aged 3;5-9;8) comprehension of sentences containing ambiguity of prepositional phrase (PP) attachment. Results from a picture selection study (N = 90) showed that children use verb semantics and preposition type to resolve the ambiguity, with older children also showing sensitivity to the definiteness of the object NP as a cue to interpretation. Study 2 investigated three- and five-year-old children's (N = 47) ability to override an instrumental interpretation of ambiguous PPs in order to process attributes of the referential scene. The results showed that while five-year-olds are capable of incorporating aspects of the referential scene into their interpretations, three-year-olds are not as successful. Overall, the results suggest that children are attuned very early to the lexico-semantic co-occurrences that have been shown to aid ambiguity resolution in adults, but that more diffuse cues to interpretation are used only later in development.

Categorization of ambiguous sentences as a function of a changing prosodic parameter: a dynamical approach.

The present study investigates the dynamics of changes in interpretation of ambiguous sentences. The sentences used had alternative interpretations with different surface structures (bracketing). Continua were created by systematic manipulation of prosodic cues (relative foot duration), resulting in stimulus sentences that spanned the range between the two interpretations. Continua were presented to subjects who were requested to indicate as quickly as possible which meaning they perceived. The pattern of responses and response times revealed the presence of hysteresis. That is, when the values of prosodic parameters are congruent with both interpretations, the individual's recent history decides which meaning will be perceived. Thus, we can treat this categorization process as a transition from an initially stable meaning that loses stability with variations in prosody (our control parameter). The same underlying dynamics have been observed in studies of perception of syllables and aspects of visual perception. Apart from demonstrating the same characteristics of pattern formation at various levels of cognition, the study points to the usefulness of the dynamical approach in the investigation of language understanding.

High-level linguistic disturbances subsequent to childhood closed head injury.

High-level language functioning was assessed in a group of 11 children with severe closed head injury (CHI). Performance was examined on measures of figurative language, oral expression, inferencing, and interpretation of ambiguous sentences, and was compared with that of a control group matched for age, gender, and handedness. The children with CHI demonstrated inferior performance on the oral expression, ambiguous sentences, and figurative language tests; however, performance on the inferencing task appeared intact. These findings are discussed with respect to the underlying nature of the observed impairments. Both linguistic and cognitive factors are considered. It is concluded that a complex interaction of cognitive and linguistic impairments experienced by children with CHI may underlie the performance deficits identified in the current study.

The Interpretation of Sentence Ambiguity in Patients with Unilateral Focal Brain Surgery

Interpretations of ambiguous sentences were studied in patients with unilateral anterior temporal lobectomy or selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy. The sentences represented lexical and syntactic ambiguities. In both left- and right-sided groups, regardless of type of surgery, total mean score on the test was below normal. Left-sided cases, regardless of type of surgery, provided significantly fewer alternative interpretations than right-sided cases. The results suggest greater left than right hemisphere specialization in both lexical and syntactic processing, but also suggest right hemisphere involvement in resolution of lexical ambiguity.

Bias in interpretation of ambiguous sentences related to threat in anxiety.

In the 1st of 2 experiments, currently clinically anxious, recovered clinically anxious, and normal control subjects were presented with a mixture of unambiguous and ambiguous sentences; both threatening and nonthreatening interpretations were possible for the latter. A subsequent recognition-memory test indicated that the currently anxious subjects were more likely than normal control and recovered anxious subjects to interpret the ambiguous sentences in a threatening fashion rather than in a nonthreatening fashion. This suggests that the biased interpretation of ambiguity found in currently anxious subjects reflected their anxious mood state. A 2nd experiment established that the difference in interpretative processes between currently anxious and control subjects was not due to response bias and that the interpretative bias was a reasonably general one.

Bias, individual differences, and ‘shared knowledge’ in ambiguity

This paper deals with two types of shared knowledge in the light of psycholinguistic investigations in ambiguity detection and ambiguity resolution. The first type of shared knowledge is the generally shared knowledge of the world type, an array of facts and related inferences that allow reader/hearers to detect alternate interpretations for sentences with multiple readings. This type of shared knowledge allows for a hierarchically ordered set of choices for likely interpretations of ambiguous sentences in isolation; in context, this shared knowledge provides for the interaction of bias with context to make for a likely interpretation. Secondly, shared knowledge may also be of a second type - that metalinguistic knowledge or ability which is shared and demonstrated by all members of the linguistic community to some degree, but which elicits individual differences. The role of individual differences in ambiguity detection and resolution in English and Japanese is discussed as an example of the range of individual differences in ‘shared knowledge’ of the metalinguistic type.

Perception and Interpretation of Ambiguous Sentences by Learning Disabled Twelve-Year-Olds

The present research assessed and compared the abilities of 27 learning disabled twelve-year-olds, 27 academically achieving age controls, 10 academically achieving seven- to eight-year-olds, and 10 normally developing five- to six-year-olds to perceive and interpret lexical and syntactic ambiguities in sentences. Eight lexically ambiguous, eight syntactically ambiguous, and four unambiguous control sentences were presented for interpretation of their alternatives in meaning. Each experimental sentence was associated with four pictorial choices. Significant differences in the ability to perceive and interpret the alternative meanings of both lexical and syntactical ambiguities were found between the learning disabled and the academically achieving twelve-year-olds. No significant difference existed in the ability of the learning disabled twelve-year-olds and the seven- to eight-year-old controls to perceive and interpret lexical ambiguities; however, they differed significantly in the ability to interpret the syntactic ambiguities. Comparison of the ability of the learning disabled twelve-year-olds and the five- to six-year-old controls to interpret the syntactic ambiguities indicated no significant differences. Among the learning disabled twelve-year-olds, performances on the ambiguous sentence test correlated positively with performances on tests of delayed sentence recall (NSST-Expressive) and of comprehension of sentences with linguistic concepts and relationships (Semel & Wiig, 1980). Performances did not correlate significantly with measures of verbal intelligence (WISC-R Verbal Scale). The present findings support previous observations of linguistic deficits among learning disabled children and adolescents and suggest that significant limitations may exist in the acquisition of linguistic competence by some children in this diagnostic group.

Developmental Sequences in Perception and Interpretation of Ambiguous Sentences

The present research assessed the normal development of ability to perceive and interpret lexical and syntactic ambiguities in 40 grade school children, 10 kindergarteners, 10 second-graders, 10 fourth-graders, 10 sixth-graders, and 10 college students. Eight lexically ambiguous, eight syntactically ambiguous, and four unambiguous control sentences were presented for interpretation of their alternatives in meaning. Each experimental sentence was associated with four pictorial choices. Significant increases in the ability to perceive and interpret the alternative meanings of the lexical ambiguities occurred at or before the fourth grade (mean age 10 yr., 0 mo.) while significant changes for the syntactic and deep-structure ambiguities occurred at or before the sixth grade (mean age 12 yr., 0 mo.). Reaction times proved significantly shorter for the unambiguous than for the ambiguous sentences but remained stable over the present age range with the exception that the median reaction times between first and second responses decreased significantly between second grade and college level. The findings suggest that the ability to process lexical ambiguities increases and stabilizes during the concrete operational stage while the ability to process syntactic ambiguities stabilizes during the formal operational stage (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969).