Abstract

ALONSO, Laura  and  ANTONIO LEON, José. The influence of referential context in solving ambiguities in complete sentences/relative clause: Evidence from Spanish. Rev. signos [online]. 2011, vol.44, n.77, pp. 201-214. ISSN 0718-0934.  doi: 10.4067/S0718-09342011000300001.

This paper analyzes the resolution of syntactic ambiguities in Spanish. Specifically, it compares the processing of sentences with structural ambiguity between relative clause and complete sentences, with and without referential context, using different methods of self-administered reading times. The aim was to check whether the results found in English-speaking readers is also obtained in Spanish. The reading times for sentences containing both complete sentences and relative clauses were significantly smaller when they were preceded by a referential context. These results provide evidence consistent with referential models (Crain & Steedman, 1985; Altmann & Steedman, 1988) supporting a process based on the use of multiple sources of information when solving ambiguities, and not just on structural information as suggested by modular models (Frazier, 1987; Mitchell, 1994; Mitchell, Cuetos, Corley & Brysbaert, 1995; Cuetos, Mitchell & Corley, 1996; Frazier & Clifton, 1996; Carreiras & Meseguer, 1999).

Keywords : Resolution of syntactic ambiguities; sentence processing; referential models; modular models; reading times; relative clauses; referential context; processing in Spanish.