Semantic contrast ahead: contrast guides pre-planning in complex noun-phrase production

Whether or not pre-planning extends beyond the initial noun in a noun phrase depends, in part, on the phrase's dependency structure. Dependency structure disambiguates, in many contexts, the noun phrase's reference. In the present experiment (N = 64) we demonstrate that advance planning is affected by the extent to which a dependency supports semantic disambiguation. Participants produced noun phrases in response to picture arrays. Syntax and lexemes were held constant but semantic scope was manipulated by varying the contrastive functions of the first and the second noun. Evidence from eye-movement data revealed a stronger tendency for early planning in the extended scope condition. This is evidence that pre-planning requirements of structurally complex noun phrases are, in at least some contexts, determined by semantic functions.