Focus identification during sentence comprehension: evidence from eye movements.

Paterson, Kevin.B., Liversedge, Simon.P., Filik, Ruth, Juhasz, Barbara, White, Sarah.J. and Rayner, K. (2007) Focus identification during sentence comprehension: evidence from eye movements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60 (10), 1423-1445. (doi:10.1080/17470210601100563).

Abstract

Three eye movement experiments investigated focus identification during sentence comprehension. Participants read dative or double-object sentences (i.e., either the direct or indirect object occurred first), and a replacive continuation supplied a contrast that was congruous with either the direct or the indirect object. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated focus by locating only adjacent to either the direct or indirect object of dative (Experiment 1) or double-object (Experiment 2) sentences. Reading-time effects indicated that the surface position of the focus particle influenced processing. In addition, Experiment 1 reading times were longer when the replacive was incongruous with the constituent that only adjoined, and particle position modulated a similar effect in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 showed that this effect was absent when only was omitted. We conclude that the surface position of a focus particle modulates focus identification during on-line sentence comprehension.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics