Recent developmental and experimental evidence indicates that a semantic strategy probably has priority over a linguistic strategy in sentence perception and comprehension by adults. This investigation was carried out under the assumption that differential effects would obtain in semantic strategy when a task is contrived with major constraints on semantic strategy in the context of a constant operation in syntactic processing. In two studies systematic semantic manipulations were made on the noun in NP2 for unmodified transitive sentences which underwent active to passive transformations in a communicatively sterile context. Plurality, single or double syllables, and derivation type (topical) were not significant morphemic variations on the noun in NP2. However, variations of animateness on the noun in NP3 constituted significant semantic properties in perceiving sentences that underwent active to passive transformations.
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