Eva Fernández 1,2 Dianne Bradley 2

José 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

Prosodic Phrasing in the RC Attachment Ambiguity:

Effects of Language, Position, and RC-Length

CUNY

UAM

RC Attachment: Cross-Linguistic Differences

Cuetos & Mitchell (1988)

the son of the colonel who tragically died of a stroke.The doctor met…

al hijo del coronel que trágicamente murió de apoplejía.El doctor conoció…

the son of the colonel

al hijo del coronel

the son of the colonel

al hijo del coronel

who tragically died of a stroke.

que trágicamente murió de apoplejía.

N2 preference in ENGLISH

N1 preference in SPANISH

Hemforth et al. (submitted)

Attachment: English, Spanish, German Off-line questionnaire RC Length (Lng, Shrt) Position (Obj, Subj)

the son of the colonel who tragically died of a stroke.The doctor met…

al hijo del coronel que trágicamente murió de apoplejía.

El doctor conoció…

The doctor met…The son of the colonel

…wrote five books on tropical disease.

El hijo del coronel

El doctor conoció…

…escribió cinco libros sobre enfermedades tropicales.

who died.

que murió.

RC LengthProsody

PositionDiscourse

EnglishSpanish

Language RC LengthHemforth et al. (submitted)

25

50

75

Short RC Long RC

% N

1 A

ttach

ment

English, ObjectSpanish, Object

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

25

50

75

Short RC Long RC Short RC Long RC

% N

1 A

ttach

ment

Language Position RC Length

Hemforth et al. (submitted)English, Object

English, Subject Spanish, Subject

Spanish, Object

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?

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 …

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

Materials Examples

The guest impressed X. X impressed the guest.

El invitado impresionó a X. X impresionó al invitado.

X = the brother of the bridegroomwho (often unknowingly) snores

el hermano del novioque (a menudo inconscientemente) roncaba

Procedure

The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom.Which bridegroom? The bridegroom who snores.

El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio.¿Qué novio? El novio que roncaba.

The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom who snores.

El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio que roncaba.

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…

N2 Durations: N2][RC

Subject

Object

Subject

Object

English

Spanish

Long RC

Short RC

300 ms

141

86

123

73

Position:F1(1,14) = 9.48, p < .01

F2(1,14) = 14.38, p < .002

RC Length:F1(1,14) = 49.90, p < .001F2(1,14) = 39.99, p < .001

Position RC Length:F1(1,14) = 10.69, p < .01F2(1,14) = 8.85, p < .02

RC Verb Durations: RC][V

Subject

Object

Subject

Object

Long RC

Short RC

300 ms

English

Spanish

Interaction, Position Length:

F1(1,14) = 5.38, p < .05F2(1,14) = 4.42, p = .054

2

42

9

52

111

156

Summary

Object… V N1 N2 ][ RC

SubjectN1 N2 ][ RC ][ V …

eva_fernandez@qc.edudbradley@gc.cuny.edu