A computational linguistic approach to natural language processing with applications to garden path sentences analysis

This paper discusses the computational parsing of GP sentences. By an approach of combining computational linguistic methods, e.g. CFG, ATN and BNF, we analyze the various syntactic structures of pre-grammatical, common, ambiguous and GP sentences. The evidence shows both ambiguous and GP sentences have lexical or syntactic crossings. Any choice of the crossing in ambiguous sentences can bring a full-parsed structure. In GP sentences, the probability-based choice is the cognitive prototype of parsing. Once the part-parsed priority structure is replaced by the full-parsed structure of low probability, the distinctive feature of backtracking appears. The computational analysis supports Pritchett’s idea on processing breakdown of GP sentences. KeywordsNatural language processing; computational linguistics; context free grammar; Backus–Naur Form; garden path sentences.