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Transparency in the processing of temporal ambiguity: The case of embedded tense
Published Web Location
https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5390Abstract
We report the results of one acceptability rating study and two self-paced reading studies on the form-meaning mismatch in the interpretation of past-under-past in complement clauses in English. Across the three experiments, we find an off-line and on-line preference for the backward-shifted interpretation, in line with predictions of the structural approach to the ambiguity when assuming a processing preference for morphological transparent interpretation.