Machine’s Statistical Parsing and Human’s Cognitive Preference for Garden Path Sentences

Abstract

We focus in this article on the comparison between machine statistical parsing and human cognitive preference when dealing with the semantic circuit of garden path sentences. Stanford parser and 126 Chinese college students are introduced to discuss the parsing of garden path sentences. Machine has the ability to successfully parse sentences based on statistical information. If the statistical result is coincident with answer, an excellent parsing result comes into being. Otherwise, ambiguous effect and processing breakdown may occur. Human beings have their cognitive preference. When they are required to parse garden path sentences, some are confused by ambiguity just as machine does. However, some people, mostly belonging to high span readers with more linguistic experience, have special ability to disambiguate the sentences after backtracking and reanalyzing. We draw a conclusion that human beings sometimes parse some types of sentences better than machine does.