Introduction to Syntax Session 1

Parsing Preferences
• Unexpectedly, the sentence from the last slide is hard to
understand.
• It needs to be explained why we cannot interpret the
sentence in the intended way right away. (It is the only
reading that makes sense!)
• There must be general human parsing strategies that
initially block this interpretation.
• People have made different suggestions on how humans
parse and why some sentences are hard to understand,
although they do have entirely unproblematic meanings.
27.05.2008 Some slides are adapted from material of A. Carnie 29