Symmetry of Clauses and the Psychological Significance of Left-Branching

Abstract

This paper deals with the questions of symmetry in sentence clauses, and of the psychological significance of left-branching. Texts based on spontaneous and prepared speech, drawn from populations ranging from political speakers to schizophrenic patients were analysed. The results showed that symmetry is not a characteristic of clauses and longer clauses consisting of five or more words to the left or right of the verb, or both, showed a significant tendency towards asymmetry. Measures of left-branching (LB) were thus shown to be independent of or inversely related to measures of right branching (RB).

The comparative study of LB as well as RB in respect of individual consistency and psychological significance showed LB to be a discriminative and individually consistent measure and consequently a psychological indicator while RB did not qualify as such.

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