ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the question dealt with how utterances are processed in isolation, without the help of knowledge of the world. It describes the requirements which must be met by a model of utterance comprehension: Flexibility, Redundancy, Probabilistic strategies, Semantic concepts, Context and the knowledge of the world, and Economy. A comprehension model, then, must make use of redundant information in the utterance. Further, probabilistic strategies must be resorted to and consequently revisions will be required in the course of processing. Additional strategies employed in sentence comprehension have been proposed by Bever. Perceptual strategies are also different from computer programs in being probabilistic. In this respect a theory based on perceptual strategies comes to the way human hearers go about interpreting a sentence. The theory of perceptual strategies perhaps comes closest so such an account. It does involve probabilistic strategies and seems to allow for flexibility and redundancy.
