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)

Participants

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)

bilingual processing:what’s in the box?