Limitations of Subordination and Nested Clauses
I'm an English teacher who often has to grapple with explaining to students the complexity of clause structure in English, and after reading an article about various 'longest sentences' in fiction, I got to wondering if anyone has ever done any research into the cognitive limitations or constraints on the amount of nesting an average reader can understand.
That's the basic question: is there any research on what our nested clause comprehension limits are?
But there are loads of related questions that might be relevant here, too, like:
How many embedded clauses can you insert in a main clause before the latter element ceases to make sense?
Is there a fixed limit on the amount of nesting we can follow?
How different are English speakers in their ability to track meaning across clauses?
relative-clauses clauses dependent-clause independent-clauses
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
add a comment |
I'm an English teacher who often has to grapple with explaining to students the complexity of clause structure in English, and after reading an article about various 'longest sentences' in fiction, I got to wondering if anyone has ever done any research into the cognitive limitations or constraints on the amount of nesting an average reader can understand.
That's the basic question: is there any research on what our nested clause comprehension limits are?
But there are loads of related questions that might be relevant here, too, like:
How many embedded clauses can you insert in a main clause before the latter element ceases to make sense?
Is there a fixed limit on the amount of nesting we can follow?
How different are English speakers in their ability to track meaning across clauses?
relative-clauses clauses dependent-clause independent-clauses
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
1
This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago
add a comment |
I'm an English teacher who often has to grapple with explaining to students the complexity of clause structure in English, and after reading an article about various 'longest sentences' in fiction, I got to wondering if anyone has ever done any research into the cognitive limitations or constraints on the amount of nesting an average reader can understand.
That's the basic question: is there any research on what our nested clause comprehension limits are?
But there are loads of related questions that might be relevant here, too, like:
How many embedded clauses can you insert in a main clause before the latter element ceases to make sense?
Is there a fixed limit on the amount of nesting we can follow?
How different are English speakers in their ability to track meaning across clauses?
relative-clauses clauses dependent-clause independent-clauses
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
I'm an English teacher who often has to grapple with explaining to students the complexity of clause structure in English, and after reading an article about various 'longest sentences' in fiction, I got to wondering if anyone has ever done any research into the cognitive limitations or constraints on the amount of nesting an average reader can understand.
That's the basic question: is there any research on what our nested clause comprehension limits are?
But there are loads of related questions that might be relevant here, too, like:
How many embedded clauses can you insert in a main clause before the latter element ceases to make sense?
Is there a fixed limit on the amount of nesting we can follow?
How different are English speakers in their ability to track meaning across clauses?
relative-clauses clauses dependent-clause independent-clauses
relative-clauses clauses dependent-clause independent-clauses
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
asked 13 hours ago
tardy pigeontardy pigeon
68135
68135
1
This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago
add a comment |
1
This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago
1
1
This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago
This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
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Susumu Kuno has reported on this in a number of works. Here are a few references in McCawley's excellent text on the linguistic analysis of English.
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
add a comment |
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Susumu Kuno has reported on this in a number of works. Here are a few references in McCawley's excellent text on the linguistic analysis of English.
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
add a comment |
Susumu Kuno has reported on this in a number of works. Here are a few references in McCawley's excellent text on the linguistic analysis of English.
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
add a comment |
Susumu Kuno has reported on this in a number of works. Here are a few references in McCawley's excellent text on the linguistic analysis of English.
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
Susumu Kuno has reported on this in a number of works. Here are a few references in McCawley's excellent text on the linguistic analysis of English.
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
answered 11 hours ago
Greg LeeGreg Lee
14.9k2933
14.9k2933
add a comment |
add a comment |
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This may not the right site for your question. But I can recommend Readability: Text and Context (Bailin and Grafstein). In the chapter on Grammar and Readability: Syntactic complexity they cover the issue you raise, without, however, answering the specific questions you ask.
– Shoe
12 hours ago