Abstract
In Experiment One, subjects were instructed to surmise the location of pauses in four unpunctuated texts, two written in their native language and two written in a nonnative language. Bilingual subjects with knowledge of both languages served as a control. The mean number of total, correct, and false positive surmises, as well as the mean number of correct sumises within three durational brackets were analyzed between and within subjects. Native and nonnative language proficiency is discussed. In Experiment Two, English-speaking subjects were instructed to surmise pause location within three poems, each of which was written in either the French, English, or German language. Half of these subjects received unpunctuated versions of the poems while the remaining subjects received punctuated versions of the text. The detection of pause location as it relates to the language genre under investigation is explored. The influence of overlearned habits of language use as means to localizing appropriate use of pauses is discussed.
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Monti, L.A., O'Connell, D.C. & Chiappetta, J. “Surmising” pauses. J Psycholinguist Res 19, 43–55 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01068184
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01068184