Seriality in LF Parsing

This paper examines the nature of LF parsing with respect to the number of alternative semantic representations considered simultaneously. Much research on phrase structure parsing suggests that multiple phrase structure representations are considered in parallel as the sentence unfolds, with one ultimately chosen as the correct parse. This paper presents a novel experimental procedure, the Incremental Verification Task (IVT), a technique designed to examine the processing of global ambiguity. We find evidence that although the parser can entertain multiple syntactic alternatives simultaneously, LF parsing is fundamentally different. We suggest that the parser processes LF alternatives in serial, first adhering to the representation that most closely matches the surface structure, and revising only if necessary. keywords: Parsing, Scope Ambiguity