Resolving number ambiguities during language comprehension

• Published in: Journal of memory and language Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 352 - 373
• Main Authors: Bader, Markus, Häussler, Jana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.10.2009; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Biological and medical sciences; Comprehension; Correlation; Experiments; Figurative Language; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; German; German language; Grammar; Language; Language Processing; Lexical Access; Lexical ambiguity; Lexical reaccess; Linguistics; Minimal semantic commitment; Noun Phrases; Nouns; Number; Number ambiguity; Numbers; Preferences; Production and perception of written language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Questionnaires; Reading; Reading Processes; Semantic Processing; Sentences; Subject; Syntax; Verbs; Lexical ambiguity; Minimal semantic commitment; Lexical reaccess; Number ambiguity; Human; Verbal comprehension; Lexicon; Experimental study; Reading; Language; Number; Semantics; Ambiguity

This paper investigates how readers process number ambiguous noun phrases in subject position. A speeded-grammaticality judgment experiment and two self-paced reading experiments were conducted involving number ambiguous subjects in German verb-end clauses. Number preferences for individual nouns we...