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Abstract:
Students of linguistics all know that sentences become more
acceptable the more they are read, even ungrammatical sentences.
In this study we tested experimentally if this intuition is
correct, and if so, whether or not different types of sentences
are more or less susceptible to this repeated exposure.
We tested both grammatical but difficult to comprehend
sentences (center-embedded sentences, garden path sentences) and
ungrammatical but easily interpretable sentences (sentences with
a binding principle violation, dative only verbs with double
object construction). In two separate experiments, subjects saw
these sentences repeatedly in five blocks of 100 sentences each,
so that they read a total of 50 sentences of each type,
intermixed with filler sentences.
In Experiment 1 subjects rated the acceptability of each
sentence. The results showed that overall, subjects' acceptabiliy
ratings increased significantly. However for some sentences
(degree 2 center-embedded sentences, dative sentences) no
increase in acceptability was observed.
In Experiment 2, subjects read and then answered a short
comprehension question for each sentence for the first 4 blocks
before rating sentence acceptability in the fifth block. The
results of this study showed that subjects' acceptability ratings
increased significantly only for degree 1 center-embedded
sentences and garden path sentences. Ungrammatical sentences did
not behave differently than grammatical sentences, in that they
were no more or less susceptible than grammatical sentences to
repeated exposure in either experiment. Rating sentences'
acceptability repeatedly increased acceptability ratings more
than reading sentences repeatedly for comprehension.
The results incidate that for some sentences, repeated
exposure influenced acceptability ratings. However, not all types
of sentences were equally susceptible. The acceptability of
degree 2 center-embedded sentences did not improve with either
type of exposure. On the other hand, the acceptability of garden
path sentences significantly improved with both types of
exposure. These results are discussed in relation to models of
sentence comprhension. The results of the current study are best
described using a model in which the difficulties of
center-embedded sentences arise from different mechanisms than
the difficulties of garden path sentences. On the basis of this
we will argue that a model that advocates a unified account for
the difficulties of both these sentences is not appropriate.
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