1. Evidence for Incrementality by Christian Meyer
based on
(Aoshima, Yoshida and Phillips (2009)
Incremental Processing of Coreference and Binding in Japanese) and
(Swets et al. (2008) Underspecification of syntactic ambiguities: Evidence from self-paced reading)

2. Content Introduction The Japanese Experiment
The Underspecification Model
Conclusion

3. Introduction What is incremental Parsing? Blablablabla z Z
.... S NP VP
Blablablabla Z z
Does it exist?

4. Introduction Discussion by: Japanese Bound Variable „soko“
Underspecification Model

5. Introduction C(onstituent)-command: A c-commands B if:
A does not dominate B
B does not dominate A
The first branching node that dominates A, also dominates B

6. The Japanese Experiment
Let's learn some Japanese
Case-indicating Postpositions:
Watashi-no inu-ga neko-o otta.
my-PRON
dog-SUBJ
cat-ACC
chased-PRED
My dog chased the cat.

7. The Japanese Experiment
Let's learn some Japanese
The Pronoun „soko“:
Refers to
A place in the vicinity of or mentioned by the Listener
A recently mentioned organization
Never refers to human beings !
Dono toshokan-mo-ga soko-no shisho-ni manyuaru-o kubatta.
Every Library-SUBJ its librarian-DAT manual-ACC distributed-PRED.
Every Library distributed a manual to its librarian(s).

8. The Japanese Experiment
Word order:
Canonical word order
Non-canonical (scrambled) word order
Watashi-no inu-ga neko-o otta.
my-PRON
dog-SUBJ
cat-ACC
chased-PRED
Neko-o watashi-no inu-ga otta.
cat-ACC
my-PRON
dog-SUBJ
chased-PRED
Does not affect c-command!

9. The Japanese Experiment
Design:
4 conditions in a 2 x 2 factorial design
congruous vs. incongruous and scrambled vs. Canonical
“soko“ always at the beginning
dative in scrambled
nominative in canonical
quantificational NP
Matches “soko“ in congruous
Does not match “soko“ in incongruous

10. The Japanese Experiment
Example Sentences:
Scrambled congruous:
Keizaishi-de soko-no shain-ni fukeeki-de dono kaisha-mo ookina
fuman-o motteiru-toiu keikoo-ga aru-rasii-to aru kaisha-ga.
In a business magazine a company reports that a tendency has been observed for every
Company to bring a serious complaint against its employees due to the recession.

11. The Japanese Experiment
Example Sentences:
Scrambled congruous:
Keizaishi-de soko-no shain-ni fukeeki-de dono kaisha-mo ookina
fuman-o motteiru-toiu keikoo-ga aru-rasii-to aru kaisha-ga.
In a business magazine a company reports that a tendency has been observed for every
Company to bring a serious complaint against its employees due to the recession.

12. The Japanese Experiment
Example Sentences:
Scrambled incongruous:
Keizaishi-de soko-no shain-ni fukeeki-de dono keieisha-mo ookina
fuman-o motteiru-toiu keikoo-ga aru-rasii-to aru kaisha-ga.
In a business magazine a company reports that a tendency has been observed for every
Manager to bring a serious complaint against ?its employees? due to the recession.

13. The Japanese Experiment
Example Sentences:
Canonical congruous:
Keizaishi-de soko-no shain-ga fukeeki-de dono kaisha-mo ookina ?? ??
fuman-o motteiru-toiu keikoo-ga aru-rasii-to aru kaisha-ga.
In a business magazine a company reports that a tendency has been observed for
its employees to bring a serious complaint against every company due to the recession.

14. The Japanese Experiment
Example Sentences:
Canonical congruous:
Keizaishi-de soko-no shain-ga fukeeki-de dono keieisha-mo ookina ?? ??
fuman-o motteiru-toiu keikoo-ga aru-rasii-to aru kaisha-ga.
In a business magazine a company reports that a tendency has been observed for
its employees to bring a serious complaint against every manager due to the recession.

15. The Japanese Experiment
Results for the scrambled conditions:

16. The Japanese Experiment
Results for the scrambled conditions:
Slowdown in Region 4 at QNP for congruous condition
→ initial Interpretation of “soko“ as coreference pronoun
→ necessity of a revision to bound variable
→ incremental parsing is taking place

17. The Japanese Experiment
Results for the canonical conditions:

18. The Japanese Experiment
Results for the canonical conditions:
Several slowdowns in various regions
→ interpretation of “soko“ as coreference pronoun
→ general confusion of the parser because of missing antecedent
→ incremental parsing is taking place

19. The Underspecification Model
Consider the following ambiguous sentences:
1. The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public
was terribly humiliated.
2. The son of the princess who scratched himself in public
3. The son of the princess who scratched herself in public

20. The Underspecification Model
Consider the following ambiguous sentences:
1. The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public
was terribly humiliated.
2. The son of the princess who scratched himself in public
3. The son of the princess who scratched herself in public

21. The Underspecification Model
Consider the following ambiguous sentences:
1. The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public
was terribly humiliated.
2. The son of the princess who scratched himself in public
3. The son of the princess who scratched herself in public

22. The Underspecification Model
Consider the following ambiguous sentences:
1. The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public
was terribly humiliated.
2. The son of the princess who scratched himself in public
3. The son of the princess who scratched herself in public
Which of them is read fastest?

23. The Underspecification Model
2 different Models:
Underspecification:
Goal-related
Only resolve ambiguities if necessary
Ambiguous sentences stay ambiguous
Race Model:
Goal-independent
Use a preferred resolving
Ambiguous sentences are always disambiguated

24. The Underspecification Model
Design:
9 conditions in a 3 x 3 factorial design
sentence type and question type
Ambiguous and N1- or N2-disambiguated sentences
3 types of questions:
About the relative clause
Superficial
Occasional superficial

25. The Underspecification Model
Results without disambiguating regions:
Slowdown at relative clause
Significant slowdown for relative
clause questions
Significant slowdown for
occasional superficial at N2
Superficial read fastest

26. The Underspecification Model
Results for disambiguating regions:
Disambiguation in favor of N1
slowest
No significant difference between
ambiguous and N2 attachment
No favorable model

27. The Underspecification Model
Results for post-disambiguating regions:
Disambiguation in favor of N1
slowest
Ambiguous sentences are read
fastest for the superficial
conditions
Still no favorable model

28. The Underspecification Model
Results for question response times:
Relative clause questions are
answered slowest
Answering takes very long for
ambiguous relative clause
questions
Underspecification model
favorable
Note: average Accuracy of answers for N1 attachment is significantly lower.

29. The Underspecification Model
Conclusive Results:
Ambiguity advantage for superficial interpretations
Detailed questions about relative clause lead to
slower reading times( especially for ambiguous sentences)
Underspecification model is valid
Human parsing is goal-dependent

30. Conclusion Both experiments show a variation of
reading times by manipulating certain conditions
The variation can be localized precise enough to be
allocated to a specific word or constituent
The human parser seems to change and verify
its own interpretations in real-time
→ evidence for incremental parsing is given