LINGUIST List 29.172
Wed Jan 10 2018
Diss: Russian; Psycholinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Iya Khelm Price: ''Independent Sources of Relative Clause Processing Difficulty: Evidence from Russian''
Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinsonlinguistlist.org>
Date: 08-Jan-2018
From: Iya Price <iya.khelm
mavs.uta.edu>
Subject:
Independent Sources of Relative Clause Processing Difficulty: Evidence from
Russian
E-mail this
message to a friend Institution: University of Texas at Arlington
Program: PhD in Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree
Date: 2016
Author: Iya Khelm Price
Dissertation Title: Independent
Sources of Relative Clause Processing Difficulty: Evidence from Russian
Dissertation URL:
https://uta-ir.tdl.org/uta-ir/handle/10106/25924
Linguistic Field(s): Psycholinguistics
Syntax
Text/Corpus
Linguistics
Subject Language(s):
Russian (rus) Dissertation
Director:
Jeffrey Witzel
Naoko Witzel
Joey Sabbagh
Dissertation Abstract:
This study investigates the influence of syntactic,
semantic, and frequency-of-occurrence information, as well as role of memory in the
comprehension of complex sentences. This was done by examining the processing of
Russian subject- and object-extracted relative clauses (SRCs and ORCs) that had the
same word order configuration, but different noun phrase (NP) types (descriptive
noun vs. pronoun) in the relative clause (RC). In both SRCs and ORCs, this word
order was such that an NP argument preceded the RC verb, establishing equivalent
linear distance between the modified noun and its integrating verb. A corpus
analysis and offline acceptability rating experiment indicated different frequency
profiles and preferences for this word order depending on clause type (SRC vs. ORC)
and embedded-clause NP type (descriptive noun vs. pronoun). Reading patterns on
these SRC/ORC sentences, as well as on matched complement clause sentences, were
examined using self-paced reading (SPR) and eye tracking. In line with structural
expectation effects, both SPR and eye tracking revealed processing difficulty at the
first embedded-clause NP for clauses with dispreferred word orders. Also consistent
with these effects, the eye-tracking experiment revealed processing costs at and
after the relativizer in ORCs, which generally occur less frequently than SRCs.
Across experiments, there were also clear integration costs for RC sentences at and
after the RC verb, which were comparable for both SRCs and ORCs when integration
distance was held constant. Finally, late-stage comprehension difficulty was found
for nominal ORCs, but not for their pronominal counterparts, suggesting that
similarity-based interference also influences RC processing – particularly for
nominal ORCs, in which organizing the thematic roles for NPs might be especially
difficult. These findings are taken to support a hybrid model of incremental
processing difficulty in RC sentences that posits core roles for structural
expectations and memory-based integration (e.g., Levy, Fedorenko, & Gibson, 2013;
Staub, 2010).
Page Updated: 10-Jan-2018