Ambiguity, parsing strategies, and computational models

Abstract

A variety of computational models have been developed in recent years to model the behaviour of the Human Sentence Processing Mechanism (HSPM) when it encounters local syntactic ambiguities. The majority of these incorporate the assumption that the HSPM makes its initial choice of analysis according to a small number of exclusively syntactic principles. The arguments in favour of this structural approach range from the computational efficiency of parsers incorporating these structurally based parsing strategies to the empirical evidence which has been claimed to refute the alternative interactive account of ambiguity resolution, in which contextual information can be used in order to determine the initial choice of analysis. The present paper reviews some of these models, and argues that the assumptions concerning their underlying computational efficiency are flawed. Experimental evidence is presented which is suggestive of the alternative interactive account.