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SYNTACTIC AND PROSODIC COMPUTATIONS IN THE RESOLUTION OF RELATIVE CLAUSE ATTACHMENT AMBIGUITY BY ENGLISH-FRENCH LEARNERS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2008

Laurent Dekydtspotter ,
Bryan Donaldson ,
Amanda C. Edmonds ,
Audrey Liljestrand Fultz  and
Rebecca A. Petrush
Laurent Dekydtspotter*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Bryan Donaldson
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Amanda C. Edmonds
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Audrey Liljestrand Fultz
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Rebecca A. Petrush
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
Laurent Dekydtspotter, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 642, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405; e-mail: ldekydts@indiana.edu
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Abstract

This study investigates the manner in which syntax, prosody, and context interact when second- and fourth-semester college-level English-French learners process relative clause (RC) attachment to either the first noun phrase (NP1) or the second noun phrase (NP2) in complex nominal expressions such as le secrétaire du psychologue qui se promène (au centre ville) “the secretary of the psychologist who takes a walk (downtown).” Learners' interpretations were affected by the length of the RC, specifically its phonological weight. Effects of intonation contour were found only in a subset of learners. In a response time (RT) experiment that manipulated contexts, fourth-semester learners showed a final bias for NP1 attachment in interpretation but an initial RT bias for NP2 attachment. Second-semester learners also produced a NP2 attachment bias in RTs, but no asymmetry in interpretation was found. We argue that the processing of RC attachment by English-French learners requires a task-specific algorithm that implicates autonomous syntactic and prosodic computations and specific interactions among them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 453 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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