Relative clause parsing in L 1 Russian -L

Relative clause parsing in L 1 Russian -L 2 English Diana Vakhitova UGR 2016

Parsing=processing ØThe way how we interpret information. Ø Parsing strategies are different in different languages.

Late closure principle • Late closure(low attachment or recency)- when new words (or "incoming lexical items") tend to be associated with the phrase or clause currently being processed rather than with structures farther back in the sentence

Experiment questions 1. How people with L 1 Russian-L 2 English solve RC ambiguity in both languages? Do they prefer high attachment( 1 Spec-IP) or low attachment(2 Spec-IP)? 2. Do Russian learners of English use Russian parsing strategy for their secong language?

Experiment items • Participants=14 student of 3 d year of Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russia, who study English in the faculty of Languages and Literature • Age=20 • Study English for approximately 12 years at school and with tutors • All have B 2+ level (or upper-intermediate) by results of placement test

Experiment details • Two off-line questionnaires: first in Russian, second included the same sentences or slightly changed but in English (was given in a week from eliciting results from the first questionnaire) • Materials= 8 grammatical sentences (4 ambiguous relative clauses with 2 potential antecedents and 4 anaphora sentences). Sentenses were mixed in random way in order that participants wouldn`t understand the aim of the experiment

Results • The dog bit a friend of a professor who lives with his children. Who lives with children a) friend b) professor 43% 57% answer a(high) • Собака укусила друга профессора, который живет со своими сыновьями. Кто живет с сыновьями: а)друг; б)профессор answer b(low) 36% 64% answer a(high) answer b(low)

Results • Peter fall in love with the daughter of the psychologist who studied in California. answer a(high) Who studied in California: a) daughter b) psychologist answer b(low) 43% 57% • Анна влюбилась в сына психолога, который учился в Москве. Кто учился в Москве: а)сын; б)психолог answer a(high) answer b(low) 100%

Results • Alex got acquainted with the daughter of the teacher who was learning Spanish in Mexico. Who was learning Spanish: a) daughter b) teacher 36% 64% answer a(high) • Андрей познакомился с дочерью учительницы, которая изучала английский язык в Калифорнии. answer a(high) Кто изучал английский язык: а)дочь; б)учительница answer b(low) 21% 79%

Results • The son of my friend who is living next door is a very good man. Who is living next door: a) son b) friend 29% 71% answer a(high) • Сын моего знакомого, который учился в Санкт-Петербурге, очень хороший человек. Кто учился в Санкт-Петербурге: а)сын знакомого; б)знакомый answer b(low) 21% 79% answer a(high) answer b(low)

General results English Russian 70 90 80 80. 35 60 58. 91 50 70 41. 09 60 40 50 30 40 20 30 19. 625 20 10 10 0 0 High low High Low

Interpretations 1. Russian B 2+ level English learners prefer high attachment(80%) in Russian questionnaire to low attachment(20%). It was predictable, as Russian belongs to high-attaching languages. 2. Russian B 2+ level English learners prefer high attachment(59%) in English questionnaire to low attachment(41%). They use their parsing strategy from Russian, but the percentage difference is not that significant as in the first result, maybe because they are starting to get involved into English, receiving more input in English.

One more question • Why don`t we encounter many problems with RC attachment ambiguity while speaking Russian? 1. Because of intonation and stress (ex. : Собака укусила друга профессора, который живет со своими сыновьями. The dog bit a friend of a professor who lives with his children. ) 2. Because in Russian we have the relative pronoun который which is changing in gender: который(masculine), которая(feminine), которое(neuter) and it is translated in English as "who, which, that", English relative pronoun doesn`t have gender, that`s why there are more ambiguous RC in English. (compare Rus: Ты знаешь маму моего знакогомого, который(masculine) учился на врача? with English Do you know the mother of the guy who studied to become a doctor )

Bibliography 1. “Retrieval interfearence in relative clause attachment ambiguity: cross’linguistic evidence” by Irina Sekerina ( City university of NY) (http: //www. unipotsdam. de/aladdin/fileadmin/projects/aladdin/assets/Sekerina_DGf. S 2 016. pdf) 2. “Relative clause attachment in bilinguals and monolinguals” by Eva Fernandez(City university of NY) (http: //qcpages. qc. cuny. edu/~efernand/abralin 07/fdez 2002. pdf) 3. “Relative clause attachment preferences in Second Language Learners` parsing performance” by Guillermo Rodriguez (http: //repository. upenn. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article=1394&context =pwpl) 4. Web (http: //www. alphadictionary. com/rusgrammar/kotoryj. html)