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Prosodic Phrasing in the RC Attachment Ambiguity: Effects of Language, Position, and RC-Length

Prosodic Phrasing in the RC Attachment Ambiguity: Effects of Language, Position, and RC-Length. CUNY UAM. Eva Fernández 1,2  Dianne Bradley 2 Jos é Manuel Igoa 3  Celia Teira 3 1 Queens College & 2 Graduate Center, CUNY  3 Universidad Aut ónoma de Madrid

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Prosodic Phrasing in the RC Attachment Ambiguity: Effects of Language, Position, and RC-Length

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  1. Prosodic Phrasing in the RC Attachment Ambiguity: Effects of Language, Position, and RC-Length CUNY UAM Eva Fernández 1,2 Dianne Bradley 2José Manuel Igoa 3Celia Teira 3 1 Queens College & 2 Graduate Center, CUNY 3 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid AMLaP 2003 Glasgow, UK 25-27 August 2003

  2. RC Attachment: Cross-Linguistic Differences • Cuetos & Mitchell (1988) N2 preference in ENGLISH The doctor met… the son of the colonel the son of the colonel the son of the colonel who tragically died of a stroke. who tragically died of a stroke. El doctor conoció… al hijo del coronel al hijo del coronel al hijo del coronel que trágicamente murió de apoplejía. que trágicamente murió de apoplejía. N1 preference in SPANISH

  3. Position Discourse Hemforth et al. (submitted) • Attachment: English, Spanish, German • Off-line questionnaire • RC Length (Lng, Shrt)  Position (Obj, Subj) English Spanish RC Length Prosody The doctor met… The doctor met… who tragically died of a stroke. The son of the colonel the son of the colonel who died. …wrote five books on tropical disease. El doctor conoció… El doctor conoció… que trágicamente murió de apoplejía. El hijo del coronel al hijo del coronel que murió. …escribió cinco libros sobre enfermedades tropicales.

  4. Language  RC LengthHemforth et al. (submitted)

  5. Implicit Prosody Hypothesis (IPH) Fodor (1998, 2002) • Prosody projected implicitly can influence attachment decisions • RC length: Separate phrasing of long RCs encourages non-local attachment • Cross-linguistic differences: Prosodic phrasing principles of Lx and Ly differ somehow

  6. English, Object Spanish, Object English, Subject Spanish, Subject Language  Position  RC LengthHemforth et al. (submitted)

  7. Discourse and Position • Pre-verbal subjects are more clearly topics in Spanish than English • Topics are old information, and are therefore not focused • Non-focused phrases resist modification • For subject-position materials: • Explains the lessening of N1 attachments in Spanish, cf. English • Does it explain the reduced RC length effect?

  8. Prosody and Position • Complex NP in Object PositionSeparate phrasing more likely for long RC than short • Phrasal break at N2][RC (Bradley et al., 2003) • N2][RC break favors N1 attachment (Lovrić, 2003) • Complex NP in Subject Position • N2][RC is again possible, but… • Entire subject likely separately phrased! N1-of-N2 RC][V • Interplay between N2][RC and RC][V (Carlson et al., 2001)? The son of the colonel ][ who … died … ][ wrote …

  9. Acoustic Phonetic Study • Participants, N = 8 per language • English  New York • Spanish  Madrid • Materials, N = 8  4 per language(selected from Hemforth et al.’s 32  4) • Object and subject versions identical in length (Bradley et al., 2003) • RC verb always clause-final

  10. Materials Examples The guest impressed X. Ximpressed the guest. El invitado impresionó aX. Ximpresionó al invitado. X = the brother of the bridegroom who (often unknowingly) snores el hermano del novio que (a menudo inconscientemente) roncaba

  11. Procedure 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. 

  12. Analyses • Duration measures: • Acoustic signature of phrasal breaks • Clause-final lengthening and pausing • N2][RC … • the brother of the bridegroom][ who … • … RC.] • …who (often unknowingly) snores. ] … RC][V • …who (often unknowingly) snores][ wrote…

  13. N2 Durations: N2][RC Long RC Short RC 141 English Position: F1(1,14) = 9.48, p < .01 F2(1,14) = 14.38, p < .002 RC Length: F1(1,14) = 49.90, p < .001 F2(1,14) = 39.99, p < .001 Position  RC Length: F1(1,14) = 10.69, p < .01 F2(1,14) = 8.85, p < .02  86 300 ms  123 Spanish  73

  14. RC Verb Durations: RC][V Long RC Short RC  2  111 English  42 Interaction, Position  Length: F1(1,14) = 5.38, p < .05 F2(1,14) = 4.42, p = .054 300 ms  9 Spanish  156  52

  15. Summary • Object … V N1 N2 ][ RC • Subject N1 N2 ][ RC ][ V …

  16. eva_fernandez@qc.edudbradley@gc.cuny.edu

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