Retrieval Effects in Sentence Parsing and Interpretation

[摘要] This dissertation is an investigation into the memory mechanisms that support parsing and how they constrain parsing success. Constraints can occur from two directions: the ability to store items participating in grammatical dependencies, or else the dependencies themselves, and the ability to retrieve items required for creating grammatical dependencies. A review of available evidence regarding memory constraints on parsing suggests that although attention has more often been focused on the storage constraints on parsing, the evidence is actually more consistent with a retrieval account of parsing breakdown. I present a framework for investigating retrieval effects in parsing, based on existing models of associative memory retrieval and illustrate how the work traditionally carried out by the parser can be understood as an instance of working memory retrieval. Five experiments present new evidence in support of the retrieval approach. Two of these illustrate effects of semantic interference, in which semantic properties of candidate NPs affect the ability to complete grammatical dependencies, and the remaining three illustrate effects of referential interference, in which the availability of items in the situation model affect parsing success. It is argued that storage accounts of parsing breakdown cannot account for these results, promoting the conclusion that an associative memory mechanism underlies both parsing and sentence interpretation.

[发布机构] the University of Pittsburgh

[效力级别] parsing