Consider the sentence, "Because he always jogs a mile seems like a short distance to him."
The principle of late closure states that this sentence would first be parsed into which of the following phrases?
A) "Because he always jogs"
B) "Because he always jogs a mile"
C) "he always jogs"
D) "a mile seems"

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The principle of late closure in sentence parsing suggests that new elements of a sentence (in this case, "a mile") are added into the current phrase or clause (in this case, "Because he always jogs") for as long as possible before starting a new phrase or clause. Therefore, the sentence would first be parsed as "Because he always jogs a mile" before the realization that "a mile seems like a short distance to him" is a separate clause.

Consider the Sentence, "Because He Always Jogs a Mile Seems