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- Title
Reading comprehension of anaphoric forms in varying linguistic contexts.
- Authors
Richek, Margaret Ann
- Abstract
DETERMINED IF COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTY could be affected by paraphrase alternations of anaphoric forms presented in a variety of linguistic contexts. Sentences containing equivalent anaphoric forms were prepared in 3 paraphrase alternations (noun, pronoun, and null). In addition, the complexity of the test sentences was systematically varied with respect to several contextual variables (length, kernels, parallelism, question, and sentence frame). Third grade children were asked to read the sentences and supply the antecedents for the anaphoric forms. Results indicated that generally, the subjects' mastery of anaphora was incomplete and that paraphrase alternation was an effective tool in manipulating the difficulty the subjects had in comprehending. The question and sentence frame variables appeared to affect comprehensions Kernels, length, and parallelism did not affect difficulty, but these 3 variables formed a statistically significant 3-way interaction in one analysis. It is suggested that the complexity of a sentence affects comprehension of the structures in that sentence, but that efficient methods of measuring complexity have not yet been defined.
- Subjects
READING comprehension; COMPREHENSION; READING; LANGUAGE arts; LINGUISTICS; LANGUAGE &; languages; NOUNS; PRONOUNS (Grammar)
- Publication
Reading Research Quarterly, 1976, Vol 12, Issue 2, p145
- ISSN
0034-0553
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/747239