@article{797122676fbb44ff8f0be1cac8cd6254,
title = "Interclause relations and clausal processing",
abstract = "In two experiments subjects were interrupted while listening to a two-clause sentence just before the last word of either the initial clause or the final clause. In Experiment I subjects were timed on their decision about whether a verb-object phrase was consistent in meaning with the sentence fragment they had just heard. Overall these decisions were made more quickly when a main clause was interrupted than when a subordinate clause was interrupted, but the size and direction of main-subordinate differences varied with the causal-temporal properties of subordinate clauses. In Experiment II subjects were timed on their decisions about whether a particular probe word had occurred in the sentence fragment. Target position effects differed for main and subordinate clauses, but again, these effects were related to causal-temporal relations between clauses. The two experiments together suggest that interclause semantic relations affect the immediate processing of clauses.",
author = "Townsend, {David J.} and Bever, {Thomas G.}",
note = "Funding Information: To what extent do the semantic and syntactic relations between the clauses of a sentence affect the on-line processing of the individual clauses? While several studies have examined the role of temporal relations (Clark & Clark, 1968; Smith & McMahon, 1970; Fillenbaum, 1971), the assertion-presupposition distinction (Harris, 1974; Offir, 1973; Hornby, 1974), and the main-subordinate distinction (e.g., Foss & Lynch, 1969; Jal{"}vella & Herman, 1972) on performance, the subject's task in these studies has usually occurred after he has heard or read the This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (57352-01) and Montclair State College to the first author. Portions of this research were discussed in papers presented at the NATO Conference on the Psychology of Language, 1976, and the Psychonomic Society meetings, 1977. The authors are grateful to Neal Flieschman and Jean Rouzic for assistance in conducting the experiments, to Aida Capifali, Elba Barnes, and Mollie Morehead for typing the manuscript, and to two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier report of this research.",
year = "1978",
month = oct,
doi = "10.1016/S0022-5371(78)90304-3",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "17",
pages = "509--521",
journal = "Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior",
issn = "0022-5371",
publisher = "Ediciones Doyma, S.L.",
number = "5",
}