A. Garnham et al., SELECTIVE RETENTION OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUPERFICIAL FORM OF TEXT- ELLIPSES WITH ANTECEDENTS IN MAIN AND SUBORDINATE CLAUSES, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology, 51(1), 1998, pp. 19-39
Elliptical verb phrases must be interpreted indirectly, using a repres
entation of the surface form of nearby (usually preceding) text. We us
ed this fact to demonstrate the different availability of superficial
representations of the two clauses in main-subordinate pairs. The acce
ptability of a later ellipsis was reduced when it took its meaning fro
m a main clause that was followed by a subordinate clause, as compared
with other combinations. In addition, positive acceptability judgemen
ts were made more quickly (1) when the antecedent clause was subordina
te, rather than main, suggesting that the superficial form of a subord
inate clause is more important, and (2) when the antecedent was in the
immediately preceding clause, rather than two clauses back. These res
ults support the idea that the surface form of subordinate clauses is
selectively retained until the corresponding main clause has been read
, but the surface form of a main clause is not retained after it has b
een interpreted.