Viewing tag Garden-Path Effects
Number of test suites
6
Average performance
86.83%
Description
No description has been provided for this tag.
Test suites tagged with Garden-Path Effects
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Main-verb/Reduced-relative Garden-path Disambiguation
- In these sentences the first verb is ambiguous: (1) it is could be a finite past-tense verb, in which case it is the main verb of the sentence, or (2) it could be a passive participle, in which case it begins a reduced relative clause postmodifying of the subject, in which case the main verb of the sentence is still to come. The disambiguating region, which we label here as "disambiguator", rules out the first possibility. (In cases where the preceding context is strongly biasing toward the first interpretation, the disruption in human comprehension can be so high as to render the grammatical interpretation inaccessible, as many people find with the famous sentence "The horse raced past the barn fell".) If, in contrast, the postmodifying relative clause is unreduced, possibility (1) is ruled out from the start and disambiguator should be less surprising. Likewise, if the passive participle does not have the same form as a simple-past tense verb (such as "forgotten" vs. "forgot"), possibility (1) is ruled out from the start and the disambiguator should be less surprising.
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Main-verb/Reduced-relative Garden-path Disambiguation (with modifier)
- In these sentences the first verb is ambiguous: (1) it is could be a finite past-tense verb, in which case it is the main verb of the sentence, or (2) it could be a passive participle, in which case it begins a reduced relative clause postmodifying of the subject, in which case the main verb of the sentence is still to come. The disambiguating region, which we label here as "disambiguator", rules out the first possibility. (In cases where the preceding context is strongly biasing toward the first interpretation, the disruption in human comprehension can be so high as to render the grammatical interpretation inaccessible, as many people find with the famous sentence "The horse raced past the barn fell".) If, in contrast, the postmodifying relative clause is unreduced, possibility (1) is ruled out from the start and disambiguator should be less surprising. Likewise, if the passive participle does not have the same form as a simple-past tense verb (such as "forgotten" vs. "forgot"), possibility (1) is ruled out from the start and the disambiguator should be less surprising.
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NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity (Verb Transitivity)
- This is another well-studied syntactic garden-pathing configuration. In certian sentences Noun Phrases introduce a local syntactic ambiguity: they could be (1) the direct object of a main verb, in which case the sentence-initial subordinate clause has not yet ended, or (2) the subject of the main clause, in which case matrix verb is used intransitively and is the last word of the sentence-initial subordinate clause. (This was dubbed "NP/Z' because the subordinate-clause verb might have either an NP object or a Z(ero), i.e. a null, object.) These sentences include a disambiguating word, which is only compatible with (2); the ruling out of (1) generally yields increased processing difficulty for human comprehenders. Marking the end of the subordinate clause with a comma, makes the sentence easier at the disambiguator, as does an obligatorily intransitive subordinate-clause verb.
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NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity with Modifier (Verb Transitivity)
- This is another well-studied syntactic garden-pathing configuration. In certian sentences Noun Phrases introduce a local syntactic ambiguity: they could be (1) the direct object of a main verb, in which case the sentence-initial subordinate clause has not yet ended, or (2) the subject of the main clause, in which case matrix verb is used intransitively and is the last word of the sentence-initial subordinate clause. (This was dubbed "NP/Z' because the subordinate-clause verb might have either an NP object or a Z(ero), i.e. a null, object.) These sentences include a disambiguating word, which is only compatible with (2); the ruling out of (1) generally yields increased processing difficulty for human comprehenders. Marking the end of the subordinate clause with a comma, makes the sentence easier at the disambiguator, as does an obligatorily intransitive subordinate-clause verb.
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NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity (Overt Object)
- This is another well-studied syntactic garden-pathing configuration. In certian sentences Noun Phrases introduce a local syntactic ambiguity: they could be (1) the direct object of a main verb, in which case the sentence-initial subordinate clause has not yet ended, or (2) the subject of the main clause, in which case matrix verb is used intransitively and is the last word of the sentence-initial subordinate clause. (This was dubbed "NP/Z' because the subordinate-clause verb might have either an NP object or a Z(ero), i.e. a null, object.) These sentences include a disambiguating word, which is only compatible with (2); the ruling out of (1) generally yields increased processing difficulty for human comprehenders. Marking the end of the subordinate clause with a comma, makes the sentence easier at the disambiguator, as does an obligatorily intransitive subordinate-clause verb.
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NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity with Modifier (Overt Object)
- This is another well-studied syntactic garden-pathing configuration. In certian sentences Noun Phrases introduce a local syntactic ambiguity: they could be (1) the direct object of a main verb, in which case the sentence-initial subordinate clause has not yet ended, or (2) the subject of the main clause, in which case matrix verb is used intransitively and is the last word of the sentence-initial subordinate clause. (This was dubbed "NP/Z' because the subordinate-clause verb might have either an NP object or a Z(ero), i.e. a null, object.) These sentences include a disambiguating word, which is only compatible with (2); the ruling out of (1) generally yields increased processing difficulty for human comprehenders. Marking the end of the subordinate clause with a comma, makes the sentence easier at the disambiguator, as does an obligatorily intransitive subordinate-clause verb.
Results for Garden-Path Effects
| Test suite | Average accuracy |
|---|---|
| Test suite | Average accuracy |
| Main-verb/Reduced-relative Garden-path Disambiguation | 79.42% |
| Main-verb/Reduced-relative Garden-path Disambiguation (with modifier) | 81.46% |
| NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity (Verb Transitivity) | 87.10% |
| NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity with Modifier (Verb Transitivity) | 80.56% |
| NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity (Overt Object) | 97.02% |
| NP/Z Garden-path Ambiguity with Modifier (Overt Object) | 95.44% |