eva fernández & dianne bradley queens college & graduate center cuny in collaboration with...
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Eva Fernández & Dianne Bradley
Queens College & Graduate Center
CUNY
in collaboration with
José Manuel Igoa & Celia Teira
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
May 1, 2004 5th SUNY/CUNY/NYU MiniStony Brook, NY
CUNY
GC • QC
Acoustic Correlates of Phrasing Patterns
in English and Spanish Sentences Containing the RC Attachment
Construction
The Implicit Prosody Hypothesis (IPH)
“In silent reading, a default prosodic contour is projected onto the stimulus, and it may influence syntactic ambiguity resolution” (Fodor 1998, 2002)
the brother of the bridegroom who snores
the brother of the bridegroom ][ who snores
The RC Attachment Ambiguity
Preferred site for attachment varies by…• language: Spanish higher than English• length of RC: long higher than short
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom who snores.
Who snores? the brother the bridegroom
El invitado impresionó al hermano del novio que roncaba.
¿Quién roncaba? el hermano el novio
N1
N1
N2
N2
RC
RC
… who often unknowingly snores.
… que a menudo inconscientemente roncaba.
Prosody and Syntax Align
the brother of the bridegroom ][ who often unknowingly snores
the brother of the bridegroom who snores
NP
N1 PP
NPP
RCN2
NP
N1 PP
NPP RC
N2
el hermano del novio ][ que a menudo inconscientemente roncaba
el hermano del novio ][ que roncaba
prosodic discontinuity
syntactic discontinuity
Selkirk, 1986
Empirical Support for the IPH
Behavioral evidence on how RCs are interpreted during silent reading• existing dataset: Hemforth et al. (submitted)
Evidence on how the N-of-N-RC construction is produced in discourse-neutral speech• elicited production experiment
Do the patterns in the two datasets match up?
Materials in English and Spanish:• with short and long RCs• N1-N2-RC placed post- and pre-verbally
Behavioral Evidence
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
Hemforth et al. (submitted)
Behavioral Evidence
Post-VerbalObjects
Pre-VerbalSubjects
Who snores?The brother (N1)
20
30
40
50
60
Short RC Long RC Short RC Long RC
% H
igh
Att
ach
me
nt
English
Spanish
Post-Verbal Objects:•Cross-linguistic difference
•RC length effect
Pre-Verbal Subjects:•RC length effect reduced
•Cross-linguistic difference reduced
Hemforth et al. (submitted)
N2][RCN2][RC
RC.]RC.]
N2][RCN2][RC
RC][VRC][V
ENGLISH SPANISH
The guest impressed the brother of the bridegroom who often unknowingly snores.
El invitado impresionó al hermano del novioque 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.
Experiment: Elicited Production
Participants, N = 8 per language• English New York• Spanish Madrid
Materials, N = 8 4 per language(selected from Hemforth et al.’s 32 4)
• Post- and pre-verbal of identical length• RC’s right boundary with same lexical content,
whether short or long
The guest impressed X. X impressed the guest.
X = the brother of the bridegroomwho (often unknowingly) snores
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: N2 & RC’s Verb
Duration: Presence of Boundary Pitch movement: Type of Boundary
The guest impressed
the brother of the bridegroom ][ who … snores.]
N2][RC RC.]
The brother of the bridegroom ][ who … snores ][ impressed
N2][RC RC .][V the guest.
ENGLISH SPANISH
550 650 750 850
Pre-VerbalSubjects
Long RC
Short RC
100 ms
550 650 750 850
N2 Durations
Placement × Length InteractionF1(1,14) = 5.77, p < .05, F2(1,14) = 12.37, p < .005
• RC-Length = 123 ms Post-Verbal• RC-Length = 68 ms Pre-Verbal
Post-VerbalObjects
100
125
150
175
200
100
125
150
175
200
Mea
n F
0 (H
z)
ENGLISH SPANISH
200 ms
N2: Pitch
Placement × Language InteractionF1(1,14) = 16.56, p < .002, F2(1,14) = 14.43, p < .002
• Placement = 0.4 Hz/200 ms English• Placement = 23.6 Hz/200 ms Spanish
200 ms
Long RC Short RC
Post
Pre Long RC Short RC
100
125
150
175
200
100
125
150
175
200
RC Verb: Pitch
Interaction: Placement × LanguageF1(1,14) = 6.05, < .05, F2(1,14) = 14.72, < .002
• Placement = 8.7 Hz/200 ms English• Placement = 38.6 Hz/200 ms Spanish
ENGLISH SPANISH
200 ms 200 ms
Long RC Short RC
Post
Pre Long RC Short RC
N2][RCN2][RC
RC.]RC.]
N2][RCN2][RC
RC][VRC][V
ENGLISH SPANISH
Pre-VerbalSubjects
Post-Verbal Objects
Duration & Pitch: The Big Picture
Summary of Data Outcomes
Pitch Movements: Type of Boundaryand Cross-Linguistic Differences• Spanish: N2 falls pre-verbally, rises post-verbally• English: N2 uniformly falls, pre- and post-verbally
Duration: Presence of Boundary and Cross-Linguistic Similarities• In both languages: Likelihood of breaks
before RC is modulated by position
Conclusions and Speculations
Behavioral similarities and differences are indexed in the prosodic patterns of Spanish and English
But what is the source for the contrasting sentence-medial tunes in Spanish?• Are such patterns projected entirely
within the syntax-prosody interface?• Or are such patterns the result of an interplay
of syntax, prosody, and information structure?
