|
Abstract:
Dative Alternation (DA) and Heavy-NP-shift (HNPS) are two
English constructions that exhibit variation in the order of
postverbal constituents, as in (1).
In DA both variants are common, but in HNPS the shifted order is
rare and relatively marked. However, ordering in both is influenced
by both the relative heaviness and givenness of the constituents
(Arnold et al., 1998).
This poster reports the first experiment in a project
investigating whether constituent ordering in DA and HNPS is
influenced by an ambiguity avoidance strategy. Thirty-two subjects
read pairs of sentences and indicated which one was more natural.
Both sentences contained two equal-length constituents, and were
identical except for the order of the two constituents. Using
stimuli like (2), we manipulated two factors: a) construction (HNPS
vs. DA) and b) whether the sentence contained a potential temporary
ambiguity or not.
The results revealed three effects: a main effect of ambiguity
(canonical order preferred more when it was unambiguous) (F's >
15, p<.005), a main effect of construction (canonical order
preferred more for HNPS than DA) (F's > 20, p<.005), and an
interaction (ambiguity avoidance had a bigger effect for DA than
HNPS) (F's > 14, p<.01).
These results suggest that ambiguity avoidance may influence
choices in constituent ordering, at least in off-line tasks like
writing. However it does not affect both constructions equally: for
DA, constituent order provides a good mechanism for avoiding
ambiguities. But for HNPS, the shifted construction is so marked
that it does not provide a good alternative for the ambiguous
construction.
We are currently conducting a study to see if ambiguity
avoidance also affects on-line production, and if it affects DA
more than HNPS. The results of this experiment will also inform the
more general question of whether speakers avoid ambiguities or not.
Ferreira and Dell (1998) found that speakers did not avoid
attachment ambiguities of a different kind (S-comp/direct object).
However, our off-line data suggest that any ambiguity avoidance
strategies are likely to interact with other factors. We predict
that speakers will use word order to avoid PP-attachment
ambiguities more when an unmarked word order is available, as with
DA, than when the alternative orders are marked, as with HNPS.
|
