Barry insulted Lane at the office, but I don't know who else
There are no media files yet.
View all »
Barry insulted Lane..., ...who else.
Barry insulted Lane at the office, but I don’t know who else [Barry insulted ]. --> strong accent on the object "Lane" triggers this object reading.
Barry insulted Lane at the office, but I don’t know who else [_insulted Lane]. --> strong accent on the subject "Barry" triggers this subject reading.
dependent elements, may differentiate between meanings or carry meaning themselves (e.g. phoneme, grapheme, morpheme)
View details »
independent elements, may consist of subelements and carry meaning (e.g. word)
structure of two or more elements, expandable, may be composed ad hoc or be established components (e.g. phraseme, single phrase, figure).
one or more elements and/or complex elements, which may be structurally linked and form a self-contained unit of meaning (e.g. sentence; group of figures)
the part of a whole which carries a message, is thematically essentially self-contained, and which is structurally and/or thematically separated from the whole it belongs to (e.g. section of text/discourse/speech; picture (with cotext))
network of thematically, structurally and/or functionally linked sub-units, separated and independent from other complexes, and complete in itself (e.g. text; discourse; speech; poem; dramatic text; picture and circumstances of reception)
an in principle indefinite amount of thematically, structurally and/or functionally comparable complexes (e.g. thematically, structurally and/or functionally linked texts/discourses/speeches/pictures in comparison; political debate)
This annotation represents the view from the participants. The experimental items were preceded by a short context consisting of a declarative phrase and an interrogative phrase which biased the meaning of the target item either towards the subject reading, the object reading or neither specifically. The subject context was: Lane said something offensive at work – did anyone insult him because of that? The object context was: Barry is a very temperamental person – did he insult anybody at work? The neutral context was: Because I was ill, I couldn’t come to work for some days - did I miss anything? Participants first had to read the context, then the target item and as soon as they felt ready to speak, they were asked to read the target items out loud. The results showed that items in the subject context condition were produced with a strong pitch accent on the subject and a much weaker accent on the object. Items in the object context condition were produced with a strong pitch accent on the object. Items in the neutral condition were produced with an accent on the object, lending further support to the claim that the object is the preferred antecedent of an ambiguous wh-phrase in sluicing structures.
