How do human beings process sentences so rapidly?

1. Finite State Devices

   The ¡	old ¡	man ¡	likes ¡	John
   art: the	adj: old	noun: man	verb: likes	noun: John
   DEF	OLD	MAN	LIKES	PN: ID

   Problems for Finite State Devices .

   1. Recursivity
      the old man who reads books that are popular likes John
      Solution: Separate N, V, A, det, aux, p processors
   2. Movement: It's John the old man likes? Does the old man like John?
      Solution: separate phrase types
   3. Ambiguity: The horse ran past the barn fell (garden-path sentences)
   4. Lexical encoding

      

      1. polysemy: dope,
      2. synonymy: sofa : couch, bag : sack, bucket : pail
      3. homophony: pear, pare, pair
      4. polycategoriality: fire, hammer, rose, cooler

      Figure 2. Access representations (layer A); concept nodes (layer B); semantic and syntactic nodes (layer C); and their connections for the Dutch noun boek 'book,' the adjective ruim 'spacious,' and related inflected and derived complex forms.

1. Schemas / Scripts
   1. a set of expectations
      1. The waiter . . . .
      2. The fire hydrant . . . .
      3. The family cat . . . .

   2. Spreading Activation Network

      RESTAURANT script

      maitre d'hotel
      show to table
      give menu
      expect tip
      table
      chair
      legs
      back
      spine
      upright
      lean back
      	table cloth
      	flowers
      	salt & pepper
      	sugar
      waiter
      take order
      a la carte
      complete dinner
      luncheon menu
      breakfast menu
      ask about water
      bring order
      tip
      15%
      leave on table
      complain to

2. Ambiguity (Why do we make the processing errors we do and not those we don't? )
   1. The firm drives . . . .
   2. The British left waffles [on the Falkland Islands]
   3. Garden path sentencesThe horse walked past the barn fell.

Conclusions??