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@article{Lago2025,

title = {Insensitivity to truth-value in negated sentences: does linear distance matter?},

author = {Sol Lago and Petra Schulz and Esther Rinke and Elise Oltrogge and Carolin Dudschig and Barbara Kaup},

doi = {10.3765/elm.3.5797},

issn = {2694-1791},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-24},

urldate = {2025-01-24},

journal = {ELM},

volume = {3},

pages = {214--223},

publisher = {Linguistic Society of America},

abstract = {<jats:p>Affirmative sentences are comprehended more quickly when they are true vs. false but this facilitation is often reduced or absent in negative sentences, yielding a so-called negation-by-truth-value interaction. The reduced sensitivity to truth-value has been attributed to processing difficulties triggered by negation. We investigated whether difficulties such as these were eased when comprehenders were given more time to process the negator. Specifically, we compared negated sentences in which the negator immediately preceded an adjectival predicate vs. occurred earlier in the sentence, separated by several words from the predicate. The results of two sentence-picture matching tasks replicated previous findings of increased processing difficulties in negative vs. affirmative sentences, as well as the negation-by-truth-value interaction. However, we did not find evidence that sensitivity to truth-value was modulated by the distance between the negator and the predicate. Our findings suggest that, when sentences are presented in isolation, having more time to process a negator does not confer a measurable comprehension advantage.</jats:p>},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}