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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neuropsychologia. 2010 Feb 4;48(6):1525–1542. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.013

Table 1.

Contrasts examined in the Present Study.

(1a) ✓ Bill enlarges Lynn’s pictures of the sunset
Well-formed Control
(1b) * Bill enlarges Lynn’s justice of the sunset
Conceptual semantic anomaly
(1c) * Bill enlarges Lynn’s of pictures the sunset
Phrase-structure violation
(2a) ✓ Derek doubts that Roger ever drinks cognac
[+Licensor/+NPI]
(2b) * Derek thinks that Roger ever drinks cognac
[−Licensor/+NPI]
(2c) ✓ Derek doubts that Roger often drinks cognac
[+Licensor/−NPI]
(2d) ✓ Derek thinks that Roger often drinks cognac
[−Licensor/−NPI]

Note: ✓: acceptable; * unacceptable. NPI licensing/non-licensing context differences are indicated in italics (doubt, think). See Table-2 for example sentences illustrating the full range of NPI/non-NPI target words and Licensing/Non-Licensing contexts included in the present study. Target NPI/non-NPI words are underlined (ever, often). Previous studies have either analyzed contrasts similar to (2a) vs. (2b), or similar to (2b) vs. (2d). See main text for discussion.