Katy Carlson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3822088 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katy Carlson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katy |
| FAMILY NAME | Carlson |
| SIGNATURE | CARLSON K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Morehead State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6372-4389 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Focus Attracts Attachment
There is growing evidence that pitch accents as well as prosodic boundaries can affect syntactic attachment. But is this an effect of their perceptual salience (the Salience Hypothesis), or is it because accents mark the position of focus (the Focus Attraction Hypothesis)? A pair of auditory comprehension experiments shows that focus position, as indicated by preceding wh-questions instead of by pitch accents, affects attachment by drawing the am…
How focus particles and accents affect attachment
This project shows that focus and information structure, as indicated by the focus particle “only” and pitch accents, influence syntactic attachment, in contrast to the well-known effects of prosodic boundaries on attachment. One written questionnaire, one completion study, and several auditory questionnaires show that the position of “only” strongly affects attachment preferences in ambiguous sentences, while contrastive pitch accents have small…
Information Structure Preferences in Focus-Sensitive Ellipsis
We compare the roles of overt accent and default focus marking in processing ellipsis structures headed by focus-sensitive coordinators (such as Danielle couldn’t pass the quiz, let alone the final/Kayla). In a small auditory corpus study of radio transcripts, we establish that such structures overwhelmingly occur with contrastive pitch accents on the correlate and remnant ( the quiz and the final, or Danielle and Kayla), and that there is a stro…
Accents, Not Just Prosodic Boundaries, Influence Syntactic Attachment
Traditionally, pitch accents are understood to relate to the information structure of a sentence and its discourse connections, while prosodic boundaries indicate groupings of words and affect how constituents attach into a syntactic structure. Here, we show that accents also affect syntactic attachment in multiple different syntactic structures. Three auditory questionnaires on ambiguous attachment sentences (such as Tom reported that Bill was b…
Predicting contrast in sentences with and without focus marking
The Role of Only in Contrasts In and Out of Context
Three self-paced reading experiments explored the processing of "only" and its interaction with context. In isolated sentences, the focus particle "only" predicts an upcoming contrast. Ambiguous replacive sentences (e.g., "The curator embarrassed the gallery owner in public, not the artist") with "only" on the subject or object showed faster reading of the contrast phrase ("not the artist") than without it. The position of "only" also influenced …
Reassignment of consonant allophones in rapid dialect acquisition
Syntactic Structure Guides Prosody in Temporarily Ambiguous Sentences
A pair of speaking and listening studies investigated the prosody of sentences with temporary Object/Clause and Late/Early Closure ambiguities. Speakers reliably produced prosodic cues that allowed listeners to disambiguate Late/Early Closure sentences, but only infrequently produced prosody that disambiguated Object/Clause sentences, as shown by the results of listening studies. The two continuations for Object/Clause sentences were not pronounc…
How Prosody Influences Sentence Comprehension
Prosody, or the tune and rhythm of speech, affects the interpretation and comprehension of sentences. This article first summarizes the prosodic system of English and then reviews research on how prosodic boundaries and pitch accents affect sentence processing. In general, prosodic boundaries usually influence attachment decisions, as they are seen to reflect syntactic structure, while pitch accents relate to the focus and information structure o…
How prosody constrains comprehension
Focus and VP Ellipsis
In spoken English, pitch accents can convey the focus associated with new or contrasted constituents. Two listening experiments were conducted to determine whether accenting a subject makes its predicate a more tempting antecedent for an elided verb phrase, presumably because the accent helps focus the subject of the antecedent clause, increasing its likelihood of contrasting with the subject of the elided clause. The results of Experiment 1 supp…
Structural economy in the processing and representation Of gapping sentences
The processing of ellipsis sentences can provide clues to their structure, as their structure can influence their processing. We present two studies examining the processing of a previously unexplored subclass of ellipsis sentence, gapping sentences in which one of the remnants is a preposed PP (PPGs). Like some other gapping structures, PPGs are ambiguous between readings in which a DP remnant is interpreted as a subject or as an object. However…
Don't break, or do
Informative Prosodic Boundaries
In principle, a prosodic boundary in an utterance might affect its interpretation in a local, context-independent fashion. In a right-branching language like English, the presence of a large prosodic boundary might signal the end of the current constituent, requiring the following constituent to be attached high in the syntactic tree. We present three listening experiments that test an alternative position suggested in Carlson, Clifton, and Frazi…
The Effects of Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Gapping Structures
Two studies explored the processing of ambiguous sentences like B ill took chips to the party and Susan to the game, which may be assigned a gapping (Susan took chips) or a nongapping structure (Bill took Susan). The central question was what factors affect the ultimate interpretive preferences for these sentences. In a written questionnaire, sentences with greater parallelism between arguments in the positions of Bill and S usan received more ga…
Focus and the Interpretation of Pitch Accent
It has been suggested that prosodic disambiguation of sentences is largely a matter of prosodic phrasing. Ambiguities can be resolved if a prosodic break aligns with a major syntactic boundary of one structure but not another. The placement of pitch accents is viewed as playing only a supporting role (cf. Price, Ostendorf, Shattuck-Huffnagel, & Fong, 1991). This view of prosodic disambiguation does not apply tho all structures of a language. We r…
The Effects of Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Gapping Structures
Two studies explored the processing of ambiguous sentences like B ill took chips to the party and Susan to the game, which may be assigned a gapping (Susan took chips) or a nongapping structure (Bill took Susan). The central question was what factors affect the ultimate interpretive preferences for these sentences. In a written questionnaire, sentences with greater parallelism between arguments in the positions of Bill and S usan received more ga…
Informative Prosodic Boundaries
In principle, a prosodic boundary in an utterance might affect its interpretation in a local, context-independent fashion. In a right-branching language like English, the presence of a large prosodic boundary might signal the end of the current constituent, requiring the following constituent to be attached high in the syntactic tree. We present three listening experiments that test an alternative position suggested in Carlson, Clifton, and Frazi…
Don't break, or do
Reassignment of consonant allophones in rapid dialect acquisition
How Prosody Influences Sentence Comprehension
Prosody, or the tune and rhythm of speech, affects the interpretation and comprehension of sentences. This article first summarizes the prosodic system of English and then reviews research on how prosodic boundaries and pitch accents affect sentence processing. In general, prosodic boundaries usually influence attachment decisions, as they are seen to reflect syntactic structure, while pitch accents relate to the focus and information structure o…
Focus and the Interpretation of Pitch Accent
It has been suggested that prosodic disambiguation of sentences is largely a matter of prosodic phrasing. Ambiguities can be resolved if a prosodic break aligns with a major syntactic boundary of one structure but not another. The placement of pitch accents is viewed as playing only a supporting role (cf. Price, Ostendorf, Shattuck-Huffnagel, & Fong, 1991). This view of prosodic disambiguation does not apply tho all structures of a language. We r…
How prosody constrains comprehension
Structural economy in the processing and representation Of gapping sentences
The processing of ellipsis sentences can provide clues to their structure, as their structure can influence their processing. We present two studies examining the processing of a previously unexplored subclass of ellipsis sentence, gapping sentences in which one of the remnants is a preposed PP (PPGs). Like some other gapping structures, PPGs are ambiguous between readings in which a DP remnant is interpreted as a subject or as an object. However…
Predicting contrast in sentences with and without focus marking
Accents, Not Just Prosodic Boundaries, Influence Syntactic Attachment
Traditionally, pitch accents are understood to relate to the information structure of a sentence and its discourse connections, while prosodic boundaries indicate groupings of words and affect how constituents attach into a syntactic structure. Here, we show that accents also affect syntactic attachment in multiple different syntactic structures. Three auditory questionnaires on ambiguous attachment sentences (such as Tom reported that Bill was b…
The Role of Only in Contrasts In and Out of Context
Three self-paced reading experiments explored the processing of "only" and its interaction with context. In isolated sentences, the focus particle "only" predicts an upcoming contrast. Ambiguous replacive sentences (e.g., "The curator embarrassed the gallery owner in public, not the artist") with "only" on the subject or object showed faster reading of the contrast phrase ("not the artist") than without it. The position of "only" also influenced …
Focus and VP Ellipsis
In spoken English, pitch accents can convey the focus associated with new or contrasted constituents. Two listening experiments were conducted to determine whether accenting a subject makes its predicate a more tempting antecedent for an elided verb phrase, presumably because the accent helps focus the subject of the antecedent clause, increasing its likelihood of contrasting with the subject of the elided clause. The results of Experiment 1 supp…
Syntactic Structure Guides Prosody in Temporarily Ambiguous Sentences
A pair of speaking and listening studies investigated the prosody of sentences with temporary Object/Clause and Late/Early Closure ambiguities. Speakers reliably produced prosodic cues that allowed listeners to disambiguate Late/Early Closure sentences, but only infrequently produced prosody that disambiguated Object/Clause sentences, as shown by the results of listening studies. The two continuations for Object/Clause sentences were not pronounc…
Focus and the Interpretation of Pitch Accent
It has been suggested that prosodic disambiguation of sentences is largely a matter of prosodic phrasing. Ambiguities can be resolved if a prosodic break aligns with a major syntactic boundary of one structure but not another. The placement of pitch accents is viewed as playing only a supporting role (cf. Price, Ostendorf, Shattuck-Huffnagel, & Fong, 1991). This view of prosodic disambiguation does not apply tho all structures of a language. We r…
The Effects of Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Gapping Structures
Two studies explored the processing of ambiguous sentences like B ill took chips to the party and Susan to the game, which may be assigned a gapping (Susan took chips) or a nongapping structure (Bill took Susan). The central question was what factors affect the ultimate interpretive preferences for these sentences. In a written questionnaire, sentences with greater parallelism between arguments in the positions of Bill and S usan received more ga…
Informative Prosodic Boundaries
In principle, a prosodic boundary in an utterance might affect its interpretation in a local, context-independent fashion. In a right-branching language like English, the presence of a large prosodic boundary might signal the end of the current constituent, requiring the following constituent to be attached high in the syntactic tree. We present three listening experiments that test an alternative position suggested in Carlson, Clifton, and Frazi…
Don't break, or do
Structural economy in the processing and representation Of gapping sentences
The processing of ellipsis sentences can provide clues to their structure, as their structure can influence their processing. We present two studies examining the processing of a previously unexplored subclass of ellipsis sentence, gapping sentences in which one of the remnants is a preposed PP (PPGs). Like some other gapping structures, PPGs are ambiguous between readings in which a DP remnant is interpreted as a subject or as an object. However…
Focus and VP Ellipsis
In spoken English, pitch accents can convey the focus associated with new or contrasted constituents. Two listening experiments were conducted to determine whether accenting a subject makes its predicate a more tempting antecedent for an elided verb phrase, presumably because the accent helps focus the subject of the antecedent clause, increasing its likelihood of contrasting with the subject of the elided clause. The results of Experiment 1 supp…
How Prosody Influences Sentence Comprehension
Prosody, or the tune and rhythm of speech, affects the interpretation and comprehension of sentences. This article first summarizes the prosodic system of English and then reviews research on how prosodic boundaries and pitch accents affect sentence processing. In general, prosodic boundaries usually influence attachment decisions, as they are seen to reflect syntactic structure, while pitch accents relate to the focus and information structure o…
How prosody constrains comprehension
Syntactic Structure Guides Prosody in Temporarily Ambiguous Sentences
A pair of speaking and listening studies investigated the prosody of sentences with temporary Object/Clause and Late/Early Closure ambiguities. Speakers reliably produced prosodic cues that allowed listeners to disambiguate Late/Early Closure sentences, but only infrequently produced prosody that disambiguated Object/Clause sentences, as shown by the results of listening studies. The two continuations for Object/Clause sentences were not pronounc…
The Role of Only in Contrasts In and Out of Context
Three self-paced reading experiments explored the processing of "only" and its interaction with context. In isolated sentences, the focus particle "only" predicts an upcoming contrast. Ambiguous replacive sentences (e.g., "The curator embarrassed the gallery owner in public, not the artist") with "only" on the subject or object showed faster reading of the contrast phrase ("not the artist") than without it. The position of "only" also influenced …
Reassignment of consonant allophones in rapid dialect acquisition
Predicting contrast in sentences with and without focus marking
Information Structure Preferences in Focus-Sensitive Ellipsis
We compare the roles of overt accent and default focus marking in processing ellipsis structures headed by focus-sensitive coordinators (such as Danielle couldn’t pass the quiz, let alone the final/Kayla). In a small auditory corpus study of radio transcripts, we establish that such structures overwhelmingly occur with contrastive pitch accents on the correlate and remnant ( the quiz and the final, or Danielle and Kayla), and that there is a stro…
Accents, Not Just Prosodic Boundaries, Influence Syntactic Attachment
Traditionally, pitch accents are understood to relate to the information structure of a sentence and its discourse connections, while prosodic boundaries indicate groupings of words and affect how constituents attach into a syntactic structure. Here, we show that accents also affect syntactic attachment in multiple different syntactic structures. Three auditory questionnaires on ambiguous attachment sentences (such as Tom reported that Bill was b…
How focus particles and accents affect attachment
This project shows that focus and information structure, as indicated by the focus particle “only” and pitch accents, influence syntactic attachment, in contrast to the well-known effects of prosodic boundaries on attachment. One written questionnaire, one completion study, and several auditory questionnaires show that the position of “only” strongly affects attachment preferences in ambiguous sentences, while contrastive pitch accents have small…
Focus Attracts Attachment
There is growing evidence that pitch accents as well as prosodic boundaries can affect syntactic attachment. But is this an effect of their perceptual salience (the Salience Hypothesis), or is it because accents mark the position of focus (the Focus Attraction Hypothesis)? A pair of auditory comprehension experiments shows that focus position, as indicated by preceding wh-questions instead of by pitch accents, affects attachment by drawing the am…
Linguistics (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (12 works) · Prosody (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (10 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Sentence (9 works)