An Effect of the Definite Article on the Salience of a Noun
- 1 April 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Language and Speech
- Vol. 17 (2) , 135-141
- https://doi.org/10.1177/002383097401700205
Abstract
Subjects were asked to correct the meaning of semantically anomalous sentences in which a noun, either the subject or object, or the verb could be considered anomalous. Increased specificity of reference led to an increase in the salience of the nouns in the meaning of the sentences. A noun was significantly more likely to be retained in the corrections and the verb considered anomalous if that noun was definite than if it was indefinite. Subject nouns were also more likely to be retained than were object nouns when they broke the selection restrictions of the verb. This finding is discussed in terms of other studies showing the importance of the subject noun in sentence comprehension.Keywords
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