Sentence processing in psycholinguistics studies how the mind understands relationships between words and derives meaning. Approaches vary in their understanding of cognitive vs. linguistic functions. Theories on sentence processing include natural language and minimal processing, which assumes the simplest structure until proven otherwise, and late closure, which doesn’t make assumptions until the end of the sentence. Controversy exists over the extent to which cognition is involved in language use.
Sentence processing is a branch of psycholinguistics that studies how the mind understands the relationships between words in a sentence and derives meaning from utterances. Approaches to sentence processing differ in their understanding of the role of general cognitive functions, versus specialized linguistic functions, in language use. They can also vary in whether their primary concern is syntax or the broader context of a sentence.
A major source of controversy in the field of psycholinguistics is the debate about the extent to which various aspects of cognition are involved in language use. Some linguists go so far as to posit a “black box” in the mind that is responsible for all language knowledge and skills, separate from any other kind of thinking. Others, such as proponents of cognitive semantics, see language as more closely related to general cognitive functions, especially memory.
In particular, in the area of sentence processing, researchers tend to be torn between these two fields. Some will tend to focus on extralinguistic properties of cognition, such as verbal working memory, to explain sentence processing. These seekers may also be dealing with factors external to the mind altogether. They may, for example, theorize that difficulty understanding a sentence corresponds to how similar the sentence is in syntax or content to other sentences the person has previously encountered.
Natural language theorists, on the other hand, believe that there are particular areas of the brain specifically dedicated to understanding the syntax of sentences that the listener has never encountered before. Much of the sentence processing research conducted by these theorists is concerned with studying how the mind adjusts while reading a sentence to make sense of its syntactic and semantic content, especially if there is some sort of ambiguity. According to this theory, sentence processing is unlikely to be directly linked to memories of deciphering similar sentences in the past, but will tap into the mind’s innate ability to understand syntax.
One influential theory in natural language is known as minimal processing, which states that the mind automatically assumes that the sentence follows the simplest possible structure until something in the sentence proves otherwise. For example, the two sentences “I saw the elephant” and “I saw the elephant danced” start the same way. The first sentence follows a very basic subject-verb-direct object structure, but the second uses a clause instead of a direct object. A person reading or listening to the second sentence assumes that they are following the simpler pattern up to the sentence “she was dancing”, which would cause them to evaluate the structure of the sentence. This person, however, would not encounter the first sentence and would assume they would have a separate clause as a direct object because that structure is more complex.
A different but related theory, the late closure theory, states that instead of assuming a simple structure to begin with, the mind doesn’t make assumptions about the syntax of the sentence until after the entire sentence has been read. Given the example sentences above, for example, this theory posits that the reader would come to no conclusion about whether “the elephant” is a direct object or anything else until the end of the sentence. This would eliminate the need to reevaluate the sentence mid-sentence.
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