[HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification

[Stefan Müller]

Yes, I expected that this is true and that people will not sit there and 
imagine all the 20.000 possible worlds that correspond to the readings. 
But what do I know? I am not a psycholinguist.

And after all our world turned into an impossible world due to 
unpredictable behavior of my fellow humans. By now I expect them to do 
strange things.

Thanks for all the answers! This is enourmously helpful.

I will post a summary.

Best

     Stefan

Am 10.03.25 um 14:35 schrieb Rui Chaves:
>
> There’s also the anecdotal fact that people who read a 80-word 
> sentence in a newspaper don’t spend 30 minutes parsing it.
>
> 😊
>
> -- 
> Rui P. Chaves (he/him)
> Chair and Professor of Linguistics, University at Buffalo, SUNY
> Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies for the Computational 
> Linguistics Program
> https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rchaves/
>
> *From: *Rui Chaves <rchaves at buffalo.edu>
> *Date: *Monday, March 10, 2025 at 8:33 AM
> *To: *Roussanka Loukanova <rloukanova at gmail.com>, Stefan Müller 
> <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
> *Cc: *hpsg-l at listserv.linguistlist.org <HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of 
> quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification
>
> Dear Stefan,
>
> There is evidence that comprehenders don’t compute all scopings:
>
> https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081461
>
> -- 
>
> Rui P. Chaves (he/him)
> Chair and Professor of Linguistics
> Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies for the Computational 
> Linguistics BS and MS Programs
>
> University at Buffalo, SUNY
>
> https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rchaves/ 
> <https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rchaves/>
>
> *From: *HPSG-L <hpsg-l-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of 
> Roussanka Loukanova <rloukanova at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Monday, March 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
> *To: *Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
> *Cc: *hpsg-l at listserv.linguistlist.org <HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of 
> quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification
>
> Hi Stefan,
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Your questions are extra interesting. I'm very much interested in the
> answers.
>
> And, of course, I'm looking forward to your revised HPSG book!
>
> I work on Type Theory of Recursion, including its varieties of Type Theory
> of Acyclic Recursion / Algorithms (TTAR / TTAA). TTAR provides
> mathematical  and algorithmic foundations of Syntax-Semantics (SynSem) in
> Computational Grammars (CompGrs).
>
> The relational extensions of TTAA to Dependent-Type Theory of Situated 
> Info
> (DTTSI) directly provides math, i.e., algorithmic foundations, of  MRS and
> its SynSem in HPSG.
>
> In all the versions of  TTAR / TTAA and DTTSI, I include 
> underspecification.
>
> Best Regards,
> Roussanka
>
>
> On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 at 12:22, Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de> 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I remember that people working with the grammar matrix and large scale
> > implementations reported natural occurring sentence with an enormous
> > amount of readings. Something in the range of 100.000 scopings. Is this
> > documented somewhere in print?
> >
> > Is there psycholinguistic research showing that humans do not work with
> > specific readings but leave scopings underspecified (maybe to a certain
> > extend).
> >
> > I am revising my HPSG textbook and switching to MRS in this book now, so
> > I am interested in this kind of information.
> >
> > Thanks a lot.
> >
> > Best wishes
> >
> >      Stefan
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
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