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Office, E.E. Garden Path Sentence. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61202 (accessed on 22 October 2026).
Office EE. Garden Path Sentence. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61202. Accessed October 22, 2026.
Office, Encyclopedia Editorial. "Garden Path Sentence" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61202 (accessed October 22, 2026).
Office, E.E. (2026, October 21). Garden Path Sentence. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61202
Office, Encyclopedia Editorial. "Garden Path Sentence." Encyclopedia. Web. 21 October, 2026.
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Garden Path Sentence
EditA garden-path sentence is a sentence whose initial words lead a reader or listener toward a syntactic interpretation that must be revised when subsequent information reveals a different grammatical structure. This phenomenon arises from the incremental nature of sentence processing, in which comprehenders construct provisional syntactic analyses as linguistic input unfolds [1][2]. Garden-path effects are associated with temporary syntactic ambiguity and the reanalysis processes required when an initially preferred structural interpretation becomes incompatible with later material [1][2].
Garden-path sentence
Syntactic ambiguity
Sentence processing
Syntactic reanalysis
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References
- frazier, lyn. On Comprehending Sentences: Syntactic Parsing Strategies. https://www.academia.edu/56399241/On_Comprehending_Sentences_Syntactic_Parsing_Strategies
- Fernanda Ferreira; Charles Clifton; The independence of syntactic processing. J. Mem. Lang. 1986, 25, 348-368. [CrossRef]
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