Research performed, in part, while the author was a research assistant at the Wisconsin Research and Development Center for Cognitive Learning; remainder conducted at the University of Texas under a National Science Foundation - USDP grant. (VM)

Contrasts the syntactic view of forward and backward deletion of base structure elements with the idea that pragmatic factors of situational redundancy and perceptual grouping account for conjunction reduction in children. (EKN)

In perceiving speech, a hearer may divide the utterance into predictable units. In the present investigation of these units, an alleged phenomenon (the resistance of the hearer to perceive extraneous auditory stimuli) was employed. It was argued that this resistance caused the hearer to perceive the irrelevant stimulus, if at all, primarily at the…

The hypothesized ability of adult native speakers to understand linguistic ambiguity was tested. An approach developed to determine linguistic competence tested the ability of 90 participants in individual interviews to interpret sentences having the potential for multiple interpretations. The hypothesis was not supported by the data. A hierarchy…