@article{07a3d9b5b77e4f63bd556374ca12bc88,
title = "The Emperor's Psycholinguistics",
abstract = "We discuss and debunk five common assumptions about the interrelation of semantics, syntax, and frequency during sentence processing. In the course of this, we explore the implications of the view that syntax is assigned as the last stage of comprehension rather than the first: Statistically based perceptual strategies propose an initial semantic representation, which then constrains the assignment of syntactic representations. This view accounts for a variety of facts, as well as suggesting some surprising new ones.",
author = "Bever, {Thomas G.} and Montserrat Sanz and Townsend, {David J.}",
note = "Funding Information: 1 The reference section at the end of this paper includes the major works that represent various positions on the five issues we discuss. For this general paper, we do not ascribe particular positions to other individuals, because doing so accurately would add greatly to the length of the discussion: We are sure that we would still not satisfy the individuals that we had represented their positions fully. But we can succinctly represent our own contributions with some accuracy. The proposal concerning {"}syntax last{"} is part of a book in preparation by T. G. B. and D. J. T. M. S. developed the analyses of Spanish and suggestions about telicity; T. G. B. and M. S. carried out the priming research in Spanish and also formulated the predictions about the interaction of beliefs and telicity. John Kim assisted in an early study of unaccusative trace priming in English. Brian McElree was a collaborator on the original study of NP-trace priming in English; Kathy Straub, Ken Shenkman, and Caroline Carrithers participated in studying the contrast between NP-trace priming in lexical versus syntactic passive sentences. Andy Barss drew our attention to Example (25b), and has offered many helpful comments on other sentences discussed in this paper. We have also benefited from discussions on various germane topics with Ken Forster, LouAnn Gerken, Eloise Jelinek, Joel Lachter, Itziar Laka, Janet Nicol, Mark Seidenberg, and Mike Tanenhaus. Finally, various sources have supported the research reviewed in this paper: the National Science Foundation, Air Force Research Foundation, ONR, Montclair State University, The University of Ari-zona.",
year = "1998",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1023/A:1023206317518",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "27",
pages = "261--284",
journal = "Journal of psycholinguistic research",
issn = "0090-6905",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "2",
}