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Attaching Relative Clauses
Eva M. FernándezQueens College & Graduate
CenterCity University of New York
bilingual processing
PERCEPTION
PRODUCTION
grammar&
lexicon
grammar&
lexiconLx Ly
ONE PARSER?
ONE SENTENCE PLANNER?
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 attachmentspreferred over
high attachments
DURING PERCEPTION…
ATTACH LOCALLY:low 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
Language (in)dependent parsing
BILING UALSS x = S y
"p oss ib ility 1 "(lan g u ag e-in d ep en d en t)
M ONOLING UALSS x = S y
BILING UALSS x = S y
"p oss ib ility 2 "(lan g u ag e-in d ep en d en t)
BILING UALSS x S y
"p oss ib ility 3 "(lan g u ag e-d ep en d en t)
M ONOLING UALSS x S y
S = parsing strategy
A test for language independenceExamine RC attachment preferences in:
Spanish and EnglishMonolinguals and bilingualsWith untimed (questionnaire) and timed (self-paced reading) techniques
4 interrelated experiments (Fernández, 2003)
RC attachment: some accountsExposure-based: TuningMitchell & Cuetos, 1991Desmet, De Baecke, Drieghe, Brysbaert & Vonk, 2005
Information structure: Construal Frazier & Clifton, 1996
Phonology-syntax interface: Implicit Prosody Hypothesis
Fodor, 1998, 2002
MaterialsAndrew 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)
ParticipantsMean Self-Reported Proficiencies for EDOM and SDOM Bilinguals (Primary Language Dominance Criteria).
EDOM (N=40) SDOM (N=40)
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.
Monolingual data
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Short Long
% H
igh
Atta
chm
ent
CSPAUSENG
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
Short Long
Mea
n Diff
eren
ce, R
Ts (m
sec)
Low
-Hig
h
CSPAUSENG
Relative Clause Reading TimesSelf-Paced Reading
Answers to Comprehension QuestionsQuestionnaire
RC Length RC Length
Bilingual data
English Materials Spanish Materials
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
Short Long Short Long
Mea
n Re
actio
n Ti
mes
(mse
c), F
ram
e 2
(RC)
USENG,CSPA
SDOM
EDOM
Bilinguals and Monolinguals, Frame 2 Reading TimesSelf-Paced Reading
RC Length
Bilingual data
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Short Long Short Long
In English In Spanish
% H
igh
Atta
chm
ent
SDOMEDOM
Answers to Comprehension QuestionsQuestionnaire
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.
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.
A woman — it’s not the same as killing a man.You have to pull the trigger… a different way.
AN ILLUSTRATION
http://www.antoniobanderasfans.com/, Assassins
you have to pull the trigger
a different way
AN ILLUSTRATION
http://www.antoniobanderasfans.com/, Assassins
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. .
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/mediacenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush, 29-NOV-05
Since last year,inhabitants from every corner of our state,from Pensacola to the Keys,have suffered the impacts of a hurricane
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.
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/mediacenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush, 29-NOV-05
Since last year, inhabitantsfrom every corner of our state, from Pensacola to the Keys,have suffered the impacts of a hurricane
ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/government/mediacenter/2005endofhurricaneseason/, Gov. J. Bush, 29-NOV-05
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
PROSODYPhrasing and intonation assigned to the constituents of a sentence
elegant ladies || and gentlemen from Oklahomaelegant ladies and gentlemen || from Oklahoma
The people are revolting.
The people are revolting?
PROSODY:A half-tamed
savage? (Bolinger, 1978)
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. .
PARTICIPANTSMonolinguals, N = 8 2
English New YorkSpanish Madrid
Bilinguals, N = 12undergraduate students New Yorkfluent speakers of both languagesSpanish L1, English L2 (childhood, adolescence)
Language history questionnaire:http://www.qc.cuny.edu/~efernand/QCPL/
MATERIALSAmbiguous sentences, N = 8 4 for each language
Relative clause length: short / longPlacement: 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.
PO
ST-
VER
BA
LPR
E-
VER
BA
L
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom.
Which bridegroom? The bridegroom who snores.
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom who snores.
El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio.
¿Qué novio? El novio que roncaba.
El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio que roncaba.
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.
PO
ST
-V
ER
BA
LP
RE
-V
ER
BA
L
||||
||||
?
||||?
N2 DURATION bridegroom/novio (ms)
Post
Pre
MO
NO
LIN
GU
AL
S
ENGLISH SPANISH
127 ms 119 ms
52 ms 84 ms
LongShort
100 ms
Post 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.
Post
Pre
Post
Pre
MO
NO
LIN
GU
AL
SB
ILIN
GU
ALS
ENGLISH SPANISH
127 ms 119 ms
52 ms 84 ms
105 ms 146 ms
131 ms 212 ms
LongShort
100 ms
Post Pre
664 ms(sd: 180)
628 ms(sd: 194)
706 ms(sd: 241)
817 ms(sd: 339)
N2 DURATION bridegroom/novio (ms)
PITCH MOVEMENTS (Hz/200 ms)
MO
NO
LIN
GU
AL
S
ENGLISH SPANISH5 Hz /
200 ms
Post Pre
N2bridegroom
VRelsnores
N2novio
VRelroncaba
PITCH MOVEMENTS (Hz/200 ms)
MO
NO
LIN
GU
AL
S
ENGLISH SPANISH
N2 VRel N2 VRel
BIL
ING
UA
LS
5 Hz / 200 ms
Post Pre
STUDYING BILINGUAL PROSODYDURATION: 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)
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)