Grammar is a source for expectancies.
Overall, what expectancies do for us is actually make the world appear to slow down.
The first time one travels a the freeway, for example, the Exit Signs the go past so swiftly that we don’t have enough time to read them.
But when we have traveled a freeway many times, the signs are easy to read. They seem to pass more slowly. The same thing is true for listening to speech.
Grammar. Another important source of expectancy is Grammar.
Because we have rules by which we put words together, we have expectancies of what class of word probably will come next.
For example please fill in the missing word in this sentence:
- “The b_?_ wolf was chasing t_?_ little rabbit who was very fr____?_____.”