Resolving reanalysis ambiguity in Japanese relative clauses.
Item
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Title
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Resolving reanalysis ambiguity in Japanese relative clauses.
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Identifier
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AAI9946175
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identifier
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9946175
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Creator
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Hirose, Yuki.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Janet Dean Fodor
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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First-pass processing of a sequence of NPs in a Japanese sentence has been observed to favor analysis of them as clausemates if possible. In a relative clause (RC) construction, subsequent appearance of the head noun (HN) may force a reanalysis which breaks up this hypothesized single clause. However, the grammar often leaves open a choice between alternative reanalyses, differing in the position of the relative clause 'gap'. This dissertation focuses on reanalysis ambiguity between two types of argument-gap RC, one named "Subject Reanalysis (SR)" and the other "Subject Object Reanalysis (SOR)". We argue against the widely assumed view that SOR is difficult to process due to structural biases. Two non-structural factors are proposed to be more influential in determining the reanalysis preference between SR and SOR.;First, we consider thematic compatibility: the plausibility of a HN as filling one of the thematic roles the RC verb assigns. Results of three experiments are reported. When thematic compatibility did not uniquely select one analysis, a heavier processing cost occurred at the thematically ambiguous HN. We argue that when thematic information is available, it is utilized at the very beginning of the reanalysis ambiguity resolution process in Japanese, preempting any structure-based preference strategies.;Constituent length also influences the SR/SOR ambiguity resolution preference, as shown by the outcomes of two experiments with long and short subject phrases. Data from a production experiment indicate that this same length manipulation controls the prosodic pattern when these RC constructions are read aloud. We ascribe this length effect to the influence of implicit prosody computed during first-pass syntactic processing in silent reading. We propose that the reanalysis process takes into consideration the implicitly assigned prosodic pattern as if it were part of the input, and selects the structure that is consistent with that prosodic pattern.;The grammar of Japanese rarely provides any syntactic cue that establishes the correct analysis of an RC. The reported findings indicate that what takes the place of syntactic information is not primarily syntactic biases (structural preference strategies) but the cues provided by non-structural factors including thematic compatibility and (implicit) prosody. Implications for Modularity and parsing universals are considered.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
