Attaching Relative Clauses Eva M. Fernández Queens College & Graduate Center City University of New York

bilingual processing PERCEPTION PRODUCTION grammar & lexicon grammar & lexicon Lx 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 saw a gift for a boy in a box. Debajo de un arbol resplendeciente vi un regalo para un niño en una caja. ATTACH LOCALLY: low attachments preferred 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 S = parsing strategy

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)

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

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)

Participants

Mean Self-Reported Proficiencies for EDOM and SDOM Bilinguals (Primary Language Dominance Criteria). EDOM (N=40)SDOM (N=40) Oral Comprehension – Oral Production – Reading Comprehension – Written Production – Pass as Monolingual, Face-to-Face – Pass as Monolingual, Telephone – 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 Relative Clause Reading Times Self-Paced Reading Answers to Comprehension Questions Questionnaire RC Length

Bilingual data Bilinguals and Monolinguals, Frame 2 Reading Times Self-Paced Reading RC Length

Bilingual data Answers to Comprehension Questions Questionnaire

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 Assassins

you have to pull the trigger a different way AN ILLUSTRATION 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.. 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. 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 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

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)

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..

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 questionnaire:

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

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. POST- VERBAL PRE- VERBAL || ? || ?

N2 DURATION bridegroom/novio (ms) Post Pre MONOLINGUALS ENGLISH SPANISH  127 ms  119 ms  52 ms  84 ms Long Short 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 MONOLINGUALS BILINGUALS ENGLISH SPANISH  127 ms  119 ms  52 ms  84 ms  105 ms  146 ms  131 ms  212 ms Long Short 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) MONOLINGUALS ENGLISH SPANISH 5 Hz / 200 ms Post Pre N2 bridegroom VRel snores N2 novio VRel roncaba

PITCH MOVEMENTS (Hz/200 ms) MONOLINGUALS ENGLISH SPANISH N2VRelN2VRel BILINGUALS 5 Hz / 200 ms Post Pre

STUDYING BILINGUAL PROSODY DURATION:  Differences between language history groups with 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 short N2 durations: more breaks before long RCs  Language: Spanish higher than English N2 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?