Interpretation of students on garden path ambiguities in english sentences

Since it is natural for a language to contain ambiguities, resolution or meaning ascription should also be taken into consideration. Hence, this study sought answers to the following questions: Do the students prefer simple structures in building meaning of sentences under garden path? What are the preferences of the students in attaching constituents? This qualitative research involved 117 student-participants of the Cagayan State University-Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines. The students use three strategies in interpreting sentences that are under garden path: the plausibility of interpretation, the canonical order of words in a sentence (S-V or S-V-O), and the functions of words in a sentence, though, the most common resort is the use of S-V-O pattern. Hence, they use simple structures in building meaning. The students prefer low attachment in building constituents. That is, they prefer to attach a new expression to the most recent word/expression. However, there is a relatively low tendency that they prefer the high attachment.