Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Comma Effect in Reading Russian Sentences with Syntactic Ambiguity

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Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2017 10 (1)
Authors
Vlasov, Mikhail S.; Trofimova, Elena B.; Trofimova, Ulyana M.
Contact information
Vlasov, Mikhail S.: Shukshin Altai State Humanities Pedagogical University 53 Korolenko Str., Biysk, 659333, Russia; ; Trofimova, Elena B.: Shukshin Altai State Humanities Pedagogical University 53 Korolenko Str., Biysk, 659333, Russia; ; Trofimova, Ulyana M.: Shukshin Altai State Humanities Pedagogical University 53 Korolenko Str., Biysk, 659333, Russia;
Keywords
Russian language; syntactic ambiguity; relative clause attachment; early closure; late closure; priming; reading aloud; speech tempo; comma effect
Abstract

Do punctuation marks facilitate sentence readability? Tasks consisting of sentences with syntactic ambiguity are suitable for experimental studies. In such studies the subjects deal with a specific pragmatic problem of relative clause (RC) attachment with complex noun phrase (NP) and choose early (N1 modification) or late (N2 modification) closure of ambiguous constructions in Russian. Our experiment showed that the presence or absence of a comma on a RC boundary had different effects on individual interpretation strategies of a certain sentence as well as speech tempo in reading. The experiment showed that the role of the punctuation factor in reading sentences in Russian with late closure prime was negligible. Null prime generally facilitated early closure preference, but there were no significant differences in tempo pronouncing of sentence segments. In addition, there was no correspondence between a pause and a comma on a RC boundary. Comma absence in the sentence with early closure prime caused tempo slowing in pronouncing N1 and reducing preferences of early closure from 100% to 80%. The experiment revealed gender differences in tempo pronouncing of N1 depending on the punctuation factor: females tend to read N1 slower than males. This effect becomes stronger when a comma precedes a RC

Pages
124-133
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/30766

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