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Abstract:
This study examines the effects of pitch accent placement,
prosodic break, and choice of relative pronoun on the
interpretation of ambiguously attached relative clauses. Previous
studies on prosody and its influence on parsing have focused
primarily on prosodic breaks (see Cutler et al., 1997, for review).
A recent study examined how placement of pitch accents could
influence sentence interpretation. Schafer et al. (1996) showed
that placement of a pitch accent on one of two possible nouns
modified by a relative clause increased the likelihood that
listeners would interpret the relative clause as modifying the
accented noun.
The experiments reported here extend Schafer's work in two ways.
First, in a subset of experiments, accent strength was controlled
by making all critical pitch accents be nuclear (see Beckman (1996)
for discussion of nuclear pitch accent prominence). Second, since
accent and phrasing are not completely independent, additional
variables included the occurrence of an intonational phrase break,
as well as choice of relative pronoun.
In one experiment, sentences were constructed such that a
complex noun phrase (CNPC) of the form "the N1 of the N2" appeared
in direct object position, and was modified by a wh-relative
clause, ambiguously attached to either the first or the second noun
(uncle
or
businessman
in (1)).
(1) The investigator found
the uncle of the businessman who was wanted by police.
Sentences were produced with a L+H* pitch accent on one of the
two nouns, and with an intonational phrase break between the end of
the CNPC and the start of the relative clause. Participants chose
one of two answers (corresponding to the two nouns) to a question
concerning the relative clause, such as "Who was wanted by
police?". As in Schafer et al.'s study, placement of a pitch accent
on one noun increased the likelihood that listeners understood the
subsequent relative clause as modifying that noun. In addition,
there was an overall attachment preference for N1 (83% when N1
accented vs. 71% when N2 unaccented).
In an analogous experiment using sentences with no prosodic
break between the CNPC and that-relative clauses, pitch accent
placement proved significant as well. Interestingly, the overall
attachment preference was for N2 in these cases. Experiments are
currently being run to elucidate whether these attachment
preferences are due to the type of relative pronoun or the
presence/absence of the intonational phrase break.
References
Beckman, M. (1996). The parsing of prosody.
Language and Cognitive Processes,
11, 17-67.
Cutler, A., Dahan, D., & van Donselaar, W. (1997). Prosody in
the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review.
Language and Speech,
40, 141-201.
Schafer, A., Carter, J., Clifton Jr., C., & Frazier, L.
(1996). Focus in relative clause construal.
Language and Cognitive Processes,
11, 135-163.
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