Table 2.
Example sentences in six conditions. Slashes indicate prosodic boundaries, during which a brief pause occurred.
| Code | Reversibility | Syntactic complexity | Example sentences |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSS | Reversible | Subject-embedded clause | The man/who is teaching the woman/ is discussing a hard problem The woman/who is teaching the man/ is very tired right now |
| RSO | Reversible | Object-embedded clause | The man/who the woman is teaching/is discussing a hard problem The woman/who the man is teaching/ is very tired right now |
| RAC | Reversible | Simple Active | The man/is teaching the woman/ about a hard math problem The woman/is teaching the man/ about a hard math problem |
| ISS | Irreversible | Subject-embedded clause | The man/who is washing the car/ is doing a sloppy job The woman/who is washing the glass/ is not using enough soap |
| ISO | Irreversible | Object-embedded clause | The glass/that the man is washing/ has a small chip in it The car/that the woman is washing/ has over 50,000 miles |
| IAC | Irreversible | Simple Active | The man/is washing the glass/ in the kitchen sink The woman/is washing the car/ on a Sunday afternoon |