| Research Abstract |
Three experiments explored the anchoring effects, particularly an assimilation effect, in judging the grammaticality of sentences violating the subjacency condition. Subjects judged two types of sentences similar on the surface but differing in judged acceptability. One sentence type included an embedded clause expressing the subjective experience of matrix noun phrase (Subjective sentence) while the other sentence type did not include such a clause (Nonsubjective sentence). Exp.1 showed the assimilation effect only for Subjective target sentences paired with Nonsubjective anchor sentences. Exp. 2, in which speakers' field- dependence was manipulated, showed a clear assimilation effect for field-dependent speakers. The sentences used in Exp. 3 included either a noun phrase (NP-Extracted) or an adverbial phrase (AP-Extracted), each extracted from a subordinated clause. Anchor sentences had a surface structure similar either to the NP-Extracted target (NP-Preposed) or to the AP- Extracted targets (AP-Preposed). Regardless of the targets judged, finding showed the contrast effect for speakers given the AP-Preposed anchors. This effect was also found when the speakers given the NP-Preposed anchors judged the AP-Extracted target. Findings indicate that judgments of grammaticality of sentences even violating the subjacency condition are affected by extragrammatical factors such as field-dependence and condition of judgment.
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