Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Online Processing of Noun Phrase Ellipsis

理解语言似乎很容易;然而，我们知道语言理解涉及复杂的认知过程。当句子的一部分被省略或省略时，这似乎更难，例如在“德里克的盒子钥匙一定在桌子上，苏的可能在地毯上。“这句话并没有说苏的钥匙可能在地毯上，但我们仍然能够确切地理解这一点。这个项目的重点是一种省略结构，称为名词短语省略，其中的名词短语（如“钥匙的盒子”）是省略。理解这种结构如何运作的关键部分是，当读者注意到某些东西丢失时，识别出哪些信息可以从记忆中检索出来。本文提出的研究旨在检验心理语言学中长期存在的问题：（1）记忆表征的本质是什么？（2）在主动句子加工过程中，记忆中提取了什么信息？本文通过眼动实验，研究了名词短语省略的提取过程，发现名词短语省略中包含了详细的结构信息和形态信息。将省略结构与合意吸引配对，可以阐明这一过程，将观察到的效果与其他句法结构区分开来。此外，本文还试图通过与其他类型名词回指的对比，确定信息在哪个阶段影响省略结构的加工。这个项目将使我们能够识别潜在的来源，干扰解决不同类型的依赖关系的记忆检索机制。这反过来又将加强我们对第二语言学习者和有特定语言障碍的人所经历的困难的理解。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Comprehending language seems easy; however, we know that language comprehension involves complicated cognitive processes. This seems to be harder when part of a sentence is omitted or elided, such as in "Derek's key to the boxes must be on the table and Sue's is probably on the carpet." The sentence does not say that Sue's key to the boxes is probably on the carpet, but we are still able to understand exactly that. This project focuses on one kind of elided construction, called Noun Phrase Ellipsis, in which the noun phrase (like "key to the boxes") is elided. The crucial part in understanding how this kind of structure works is to discern what kind of information can be retrieved from memory at the stage when the readers notice that something is missing. The studies proposed here aim to test longstanding questions in psycholinguistics: (1) what is the nature of memory representation; and (2) what information is retrieved from memory during active sentence processing?By employing eye-tracking experiments, this project investigates the retrieval process in Noun Phrase Ellipsis, which we find includes detailed structural and morphological information. Pairing ellipsis constructions with agreement attraction should illuminate the process, distinguishing the observed effect from other syntactic structures. In addition, it also seeks to determine at which stage that information influences the processing of ellipsis constructions, compared to other kinds of noun anaphora. This project will enable us to identify potential sources that interfere with resolving different types of dependencies with respect to memory retrieval mechanisms. This will in turn enhance our understanding of the difficulties experienced by second language learners and those with specific language impairments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.