This book examines the role of syntax in theories of sentence comprehension, and argues for a distinct processing component which is devoted to the recovery of syntactic structure and which utilizes the contrasting types of information found within a Government-Binding grammar. Paul Gorrell contrasts the primary relations (dominance and precedence) and secondary relations (case assignment, theta-role assignment, etc.) in a phrase-structure tree, and shows how this computational distinction of information types is reflected in the internal structure of the parser, which consists of two sub-components: a structure builder (responsible for creating nodes in a tree and positing primary relations between them), and a structure interpreter (responsible for analysing the tree in terms of secondary relations). This model can also predict garden-path phenomena in the processing of verb-final clauses.

An examination of the role of syntax in theories of sentence comprehension.

Book Information
ISBN 9780521452823
Author Paul Gorrell
Format Hardback
Page Count 196
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 421g
Dimensions(mm) 238mm * 159mm * 17mm