Subjects completed sentences of the form NP1 aux V NP2 because (but) Pro...(e.g., John may scold Bill because he...) with a reason or motive for the action described. A basic perceptual strategy was hypothesized to underlie the comprehension of these sentences which have a potentially ambiguous pronoun in the subject position of the subordinate…

The analysis of syllable and pause durations in speech production can provide information about the properties of a speaker's grammatical code. Seven experiments analyzed syllable and pause durations in structurally ambiguous sentences. Results showed that a single hierarchial principle provided a unified account of speech timing effects for…

Five experiments examined how the duration of a word spoken in a sentence is influenced by the grammatical category to which it belongs, and the position of the word in a constituent. The findings indicated that a binary distinction between major and minor categories is sufficient for a theory of speech timing and synthesis. (Author/JAC)

A college English teacher laments her students' incorrect use of common expresssions. (RBW)