Attaching Relative Clauses

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Attaching Relative Clauses

• Eva M. Fernández
• Queens College Graduate CenterCity University
  of New York

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bilingual processing
ONE PARSER?

PERCEPTION
PRODUCTION
ONE SENTENCE PLANNER?
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DURING PERCEPTION

• Syntactic representations are built using
• lexical information (language-specific)
• syntactic principles (language-specific)
• parsing strategies LANGUAGE SPECIFIC?
• Under a glistening tree I sawa gift for a boy
  in a box.
• Debajo de un arbol resplendeciente viun regalo
  para un niño en una caja.

ATTACH LOCALLY low attachments preferred
over high attachments
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DURING PERCEPTION

• ATTACH LOCALLYlow attachments are preferred
  over high attachments
• Someone shot the maid of the actress who was
  singing on the balcony.
• Alguien disparó a la criada de la actriz que
  cantaba en el balcón.

60 LOW
60 HIGH
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Language (in)dependent parsing
S parsing strategy
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A test for language independence

• Examine RC attachment preferences in
• Spanish and English
• Monolinguals and bilinguals
• With untimed (questionnaire) and timed
  (self-paced reading) techniques
• 4 interrelated experiments (Fernández, 2003)

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RC attachment some accounts

• Exposure-based Tuning
• Mitchell Cuetos, 1991
• Desmet, De Baecke, Drieghe, Brysbaert Vonk,
  2005
• Information structure Construal
• Frazier Clifton, 1996
• Phonology-syntax interface Implicit Prosody
  Hypothesis
• Fodor, 1998, 2002

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Materials

• Andrew had dinner with
• the nephew of the teachers that was (SPR,
  High)
• the nephews of the teacher that was (SPR, Low)
• the nephew of the teacher that was (Q, Amb)
• divorced. (Short-RC)
• in the communist party. (Long-RC)
• Andrés cenó con
• el sobrino de los maestros que estaba (SPR,
  High)
• los sobrinos del maestro que estaba (SPR, Low)
• el sobrino del maestro que estaba (Q, Amb)
• divorciado. (Short-RC)
• en el partido comunista. (Long-RC)

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Participants
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Participants
Mean Self-Reported Proficiencies for EDOM and SDOM Bilinguals (Primary Language Dominance Criteria). Mean Self-Reported Proficiencies for EDOM and SDOM Bilinguals (Primary Language Dominance Criteria). Mean Self-Reported Proficiencies for EDOM and SDOM Bilinguals (Primary Language Dominance Criteria).
EDOM (N40) SDOM (N40)
Oral Comprehension 0.54 0.55
Oral Production 0.95 0.88
Reading Comprehension 1.00 0.70
Written Production 1.33 0.83
Pass as Monolingual, Face-to-Face 0.90 1.53
Pass as Monolingual, Telephone 0.98 1.55
Note Scores represent the difference between English and Spanish a positive figure indicates Spanish is rated higher than English, and a negative figure that English is rated higher than Spanish. Note Scores represent the difference between English and Spanish a positive figure indicates Spanish is rated higher than English, and a negative figure that English is rated higher than Spanish. Note Scores represent the difference between English and Spanish a positive figure indicates Spanish is rated higher than English, and a negative figure that English is rated higher than Spanish.
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Monolingual data
Relative Clause Reading Times Self-Paced Reading
Answers to Comprehension Questions Questionnaire
RC Length
RC Length
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Bilingual data
Bilinguals and Monolinguals, Frame 2 Reading
Times Self-Paced Reading
RC Length
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Bilingual data
Answers to Comprehension Questions Questionnaire
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LINGERING QUESTIONS

• Cross-linguistic and cross-language history
  effects, due to
• prosody?
• information structure?
• Tuning?
• Someone shot the maid of the actress who was
  singing on the balcony.
• Alguien disparó a la criada de la actriz que
  cantaba en el balcón.

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STUDYING BILINGUAL PROSODY

• Do bilinguals distinguish prosodically between
  their two languages? (and do monolinguals?)
• The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom
  who snores.
• El invitado impresionó al hermano del
  novio que roncaba.
• The brother of the bridegroom who snores
  impressed the guest.
• El hermano del novio que roncaba
  impresionó al invitado.

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AN ILLUSTRATION
A woman its not the same as killing a man. You
have to pull the trigger a different way.
http//www.antoniobanderasfans.com/, Assassins
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AN ILLUSTRATION
http//www.antoniobanderasfans.com/, Assassins
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ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION
Desde el año pasado, . los habitantes de cada
rincón de nuestro estado,. desde Pensacola a los
Cayos, .. han sufrido los impactos de un huracán.
.
Since last year, inhabitants from every corner of
our state, from Pensacola to the Keys, have
suffered the impacts of a hurricane
http//www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/medi
acenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush,
29-NOV-05
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ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION
Desde el año pasado 101, los habitantes 446
de cada rincón 203 de nuestro estado
50, desde Pensacola 483 a los Cayos 289,
han sufrido los impactos de un huracán.
Since last year, inhabitants from every corner
of our state, from Pensacola to the Keys, have
suffered the impacts of a hurricane
http//www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/medi
acenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush,
29-NOV-05
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ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION
desde el año pasado 101 los habitantes 446
de cada rincón203 de nuestro estado 50
desde Pensacola 483 a los Cayos
289 han sufrido los impactos de un huracán

• http//www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/medi
  acenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush,
  29-NOV-05

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PROSODY

• Phrasing and intonation assigned to the
  constituents of a sentence
• elegant ladies and gentlemen from Oklahoma
• elegant ladies and gentlemen from Oklahoma
• The people are revolting.
• The people are revolting?

PROSODY A half-tamed savage? (Bolinger, 1978)
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ELICITED PRODUCTION OVERVIEW
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom
who often unknowingly snored. . The brother
of the bridegroom who often unknowingly snored
impressed the guest. .
El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio
que a menudo inconscientemente roncaba. . El
hermano del novio que a menudo
inconscientemente roncaba impresionó al
invitado. .
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PARTICIPANTS

• Monolinguals, N 8 ? 2
• English ? New York
• Spanish ? Madrid
• Bilinguals, N 12
• undergraduate students ? New York
• fluent speakers of both languages
• Spanish L1, English L2 (childhood, adolescence)
• Language history questionnairehttp//www.qc.cuny
  .edu/efernand/QCPL/

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MATERIALS

• Ambiguous sentences, N 8 ? 4 for each language
• Relative clause length short / long
• Placement post-verbal object / pre-verbal subject

The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom
who (often unknowingly) snores. El invitado
impresionó al hermano del novio que (a menudo
inconscientemente) roncaba. The brother of the
bridegroom who (often unknowingly) snores
impressed the guest. El hermano del novio que (a
menudo inconscientemente) roncaba impresionó al
invitado.
POST-VERBAL
PRE-VERBAL
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?
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INSTRUMENTAL MEASURES

• Duration N2 (bridegroom/novio)
• Pitch Movements N2 (bridegroom/novio) and
  relative clause verb, VRel, (snores/roncaba)

The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom
who snores. El invitado impresionó al hermano
del novio que roncaba. The brother of the
bridegroom who snores impressed the
guest. El hermano del novio que roncaba
impresionó al invitado.
POST-VERBAL

PRE-VERBAL
?


?
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N2 DURATION bridegroom/novio (ms)
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Post
MONOLINGUALS
Pre
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom
who () snores. El invitado impresionó al hermano
del novio que () roncaba. The brother of the
bridegroom who () snores impressed the guest.
El hermano del novio que () roncaba impresionó
al invitado.
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N2 DURATION bridegroom/novio (ms)
ENGLISH
SPANISH
Post
MONOLINGUALS
Pre
Post
BILINGUALS
Pre
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PITCH MOVEMENTS (Hz/200 ms)
ENGLISH
SPANISH
MONOLINGUALS
N2 bridegroom
VRel snores
N2 novio
VRel roncaba
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PITCH MOVEMENTS (Hz/200 ms)
ENGLISH
SPANISH
MONOLINGUALS
N2
VRel
N2
VRel
BILINGUALS
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STUDYING BILINGUAL PROSODY

• DURATION
• Differences between language history groupswith
  pre-verbal materials (monoling ? biling)
• Bilinguals more variable (?, ?), especially in
  SP
• PITCH MOVEMENTS
• Differences between monolingual groups, EN ? SP
• Similarities across languages in bilinguals, EN
  (?, ?) SP (monoling SP pattern bilings L1)

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THE LINK TO SILENT READING

• RC Length long higher than shortN2 durations
  more breaks before long RCs
• Language Spanish higher than EnglishN2 pitch
  movements with post-verbal materials Spanish
  rises, English falls
• Placement post-verbal higher than pre-verbal
  (SP)N2 durations and pitch movements length ?
  placement interaction
• Language History
• RC length effect reduced in less frequently read
  language (SP)

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bilingual processingwhats in the box?