The interpretation of ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context
The interpretation of ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context
Many trimorphemic words are structurally and semantically ambiguous. For example, unlockable can either be un-lockable (can’t be locked) or unlock-able (can be unlocked). Which interpretation is preferred and whether prior sentence context affects the initial interpretation is not clear from prior research. The present experiment embedded ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context and manipulated whether prior context disambiguated the meaning or not and examined the pattern of fixation durations on the ambiguous word and the remainder of the text. The results indicated that the unlock-able interpretation was preferred; moreover, prior context did not exert a significant effect until the eyes had initially exited from the target word.
88-94
Pollatsek, Alexander
63e93bd7-111e-4338-b922-9c5c0e6ba467
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce
Stockall, Linnaea
ab0adfbd-e484-41d2-8475-1f21393b3cda
de Almeida, Roberto G.
533eb724-8e3c-413e-9dbc-8d0fcc9bfeda
11 February 2010
Pollatsek, Alexander
63e93bd7-111e-4338-b922-9c5c0e6ba467
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce
Stockall, Linnaea
ab0adfbd-e484-41d2-8475-1f21393b3cda
de Almeida, Roberto G.
533eb724-8e3c-413e-9dbc-8d0fcc9bfeda
Pollatsek, Alexander, Drieghe, Denis, Stockall, Linnaea and de Almeida, Roberto G.
(2010)
The interpretation of ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17 (1), .
(doi:10.3758/PBR.17.1.88).
Abstract
Many trimorphemic words are structurally and semantically ambiguous. For example, unlockable can either be un-lockable (can’t be locked) or unlock-able (can be unlocked). Which interpretation is preferred and whether prior sentence context affects the initial interpretation is not clear from prior research. The present experiment embedded ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context and manipulated whether prior context disambiguated the meaning or not and examined the pattern of fixation durations on the ambiguous word and the remainder of the text. The results indicated that the unlock-able interpretation was preferred; moreover, prior context did not exert a significant effect until the eyes had initially exited from the target word.
Text
Pollatsek,_Drieghe,_Stockall,_&_de_Almeida_(2010).pdf
- Author's Original
More information
Published date: 11 February 2010
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 144619
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/144619
PURE UUID: 02d2dc60-1809-4832-a277-42dd1c3648b5
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 14 Apr 2010 15:29
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:55
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Alexander Pollatsek
Author:
Linnaea Stockall
Author:
Roberto G. de Almeida
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
