A case-marking cue for filler–gap dependencies in children's relative clauses in Japanese

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 1084-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAKAAKI SUZUKI
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Single Argument ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Case Markers ◽  
Object Relative

ABSTRACTObject relative clauses have traditionally been thought to be more difficult than subject relative clauses in child English. However, recent studies as well as Japanese data show contradictory results. This study disclosed preschool children's superior performance on object relative clauses in Japanese; however, this dominance disappeared for the children who could use both the nominative and accusative case markers as cues for the comprehension of single-argument sentences. Assuming a filler–gap dependency for the relative clause formation, we suggest that there is no difference in the difficulty between subject and object relative clauses in the grammar of Japanese-speaking children.

scholarly journals The acquisition of relative clauses in Russian and Polish in monolingual and bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-248
Author(s):  
Alla V. Peeters-Podgaevskaja ◽  
Bibi E. Janssen ◽  
Anne E. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Repetition Task

Abstract In this paper, we present the results on (re)production of relative clauses in a sentence repetition task by Russian and Polish monolingual and bilingual children (3;6–6;6 years). Russian and Polish both involve overt case marking in the relative clause formation, but the case marking in Polish is more regular and transparent. Our results suggest that, when case marking is the only disambiguating cue, its transparency and regularity contributes to a significantly better performance. This explains why the Polish children, both monolingual and bilingual, were more successful in reproduction of subject and object relatives compared to their Russian peers.

scholarly journals RELPRON: A Relative Clause Evaluation Data Set for Compositional Distributional Semantics

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rimell ◽  
Jean Maillard ◽  
Tamara Polajnar ◽  
Stephen Clark
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Distributional Semantics ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Vector Addition ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Compositional Distributional Semantics ◽  
Object Relative

This article introduces RELPRON, a large data set of subject and object relative clauses, for the evaluation of methods in compositional distributional semantics. RELPRON targets an intermediate level of grammatical complexity between content-word pairs and full sentences. The task involves matching terms, such as “wisdom,” with representative properties, such as “quality that experience teaches.” A unique feature of RELPRON is that it is built from attested properties, but without the need for them to appear in relative clause format in the source corpus. The article also presents some initial experiments on RELPRON, using a variety of composition methods including simple baselines, arithmetic operators on vectors, and finally, more complex methods in which argument-taking words are represented as tensors. The latter methods are based on the Categorial framework, which is described in detail. The results show that vector addition is difficult to beat—in line with the existing literature—but that an implementation of the Categorial framework based on the Practical Lexical Function model is able to match the performance of vector addition. The article finishes with an in-depth analysis of RELPRON, showing how results vary across subject and object relative clauses, across different head nouns, and how the methods perform on the subtasks necessary for capturing relative clause semantics, as well as providing a qualitative analysis highlighting some of the more common errors. Our hope is that the competitive results presented here, in which the best systems are on average ranking one out of every two properties correctly for a given term, will inspire new approaches to the RELPRON ranking task and other tasks based on linguistically interesting constructions.

scholarly journals Comprehension and Eye Movements in the Processing of Subject- and Object-Relative Clauses: Evidence from Dyslexia and Individual Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 915
Author(s):  
Marianna Stella ◽  
Paul E. Engelhardt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Difficulty ◽  
Object Relative

In this study, we examined eye movements and comprehension in sentences containing a relative clause. To date, few studies have focused on syntactic processing in dyslexia and so one goal of the study is to contribute to this gap in the experimental literature. A second goal is to contribute to theoretical psycholinguistic debate concerning the cause and the location of the processing difficulty associated with object-relative clauses. We compared dyslexic readers (n = 50) to a group of non-dyslexic controls (n = 50). We also assessed two key individual differences variables (working memory and verbal intelligence), which have been theorised to impact reading times and comprehension of subject- and object-relative clauses. The results showed that dyslexics and controls had similar comprehension accuracy. However, reading times showed participants with dyslexia spent significantly longer reading the sentences compared to controls (i.e., a main effect of dyslexia). In general, sentence type did not interact with dyslexia status. With respect to individual differences and the theoretical debate, we found that processing difficulty between the subject and object relatives was no longer significant when individual differences in working memory were controlled. Thus, our findings support theories, which assume that working memory demands are responsible for the processing difficulty incurred by (1) individuals with dyslexia and (2) object-relative clauses as compared to subject relative clauses.

scholarly journals Similarity-based interference and relative clauses in second language processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110635
Author(s):  
Ian Cunnings ◽  
Hiroki Fujita
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Relative Disadvantage ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Object Relative

Relative clauses have long been examined in research on first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition and processing, and a large body of research has shown that object relative clauses (e.g. ‘The boy that the girl saw’) are more difficult to process than subject relative clauses (e.g. ‘The boy that saw the girl’). Although there are different accounts of this finding, memory-based factors have been argued to play a role in explaining the object relative disadvantage. Evidence of memory-based factors in relative clause processing comes from studies indicating that representational similarity influences the difficulty associated with object relatives as a result of a phenomenon known as similarity-based interference. Although similarity-based interference has been well studied in L1 processing, less is known about how it influences L2 processing. We report two studies – an eye-tracking experiment and a comprehension task – investigating interference in the comprehension of relative clauses in L1 and L2 readers. Our results indicated similarity-based interference in the processing of object relative clauses in both L1 and L2 readers, with no significant differences in the size of interference effects between the two groups. These results highlight the importance of considering memory-based factors when examining L2 processing.

scholarly journals How do language-specific characteristics affect the acquisition of different relative clause types? Evidence from Finnish

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
MINNA KIRJAVAINEN ◽  
EVAN KIDD ◽  
ELENA LIEVEN
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Rc Structures ◽  
Relative Complexity ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Subject And Object

AbstractWe report three studies (one corpus, two experimental) that investigated the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in Finnish-speaking children. Study 1 found that Finnish children's naturalistic exposure to RCs predominantly consists of non-subject relatives (i.e. oblique, object) which typically have inanimate head nouns. Study 2 tested children's comprehension of subject, object, and two types of oblique relatives. No difference was found in the children's performance on different structures, including a lack of previously widely reported asymmetry between subject and object relatives. However, children's comprehension was modulated by animacy of the head referent. Study 3 tested children's production of the same RC structures using sentence repetition. Again we found no subject–object asymmetry. The pattern of results suggested that distributional frequency patterns and the relative complexity of the relativizer contribute to the difficulty associated with particular RC structures.

scholarly journals The Sentence in Its Syntactic and Semantic Aspects in Al-Salimi’s Grammatical Scholarship

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Sameer Statiyyeh ◽  
Halah Al Abooshi
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sentence Classification ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Semantic Aspect

This research aims at defining the concept of the sentence, its components, and types according to the Omani scholar Abdullah bin Humaid Al-Salimi (1913). Like most Arab grammarians, Al-Salimi concentrated on the syntactic level of the sentence without denying the semantic aspect. Al-Salimi adopted the traditional grammatical concept of the sentence. According to Arab grammarians, the sentence is the minimum structure that makes sense. It consists of two main factors: the subject and object. This concept makes problems when applied to the relative clause and the first part of the conditional clause. Both conditional and relative clauses consist of two elements, i.e. subject and object but they do not make complete meaning. Like traditional grammarians, Al-Salimi divided the sentence according to initiation and implication. Initiation is when the sentence starts with a noun, then it will be classified as a nominal sentence; otherwise it will be considered a verbal sentence. Implication is when the small sentence is implied in the big sentence. This research arrived at some findings which include the following results: 1-Al-Salimi was a traditional grammarian but he had some innovative ideas. 2-Al-Salimi’s approach can be considered structural, but one that does not ignore semantic considerations. 3-The sentence classification in Salimi’s work is built on syntactic principles. 

scholarly journals When Structure Competes with Semantics: Reading Chinese Relative Clauses

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peiyun Zhou ◽  
Yun Yao ◽  
Kiel Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Reading Chinese ◽  
Semantic Plausibility ◽  
Object Relative

An ongoing debate in Chinese psycholinguistics is whether subject-relative clauses or object-relative clauses are more difficult to process. The current study asks what happens when structure and plausibility are pitted against each other in Chinese relative clause processing. Chinese relative clause structures and semantic plausibility were manipulated to create both plausible and implausible versions of subject- and object-relative clauses. This method has been used in other languages (e.g., English) to elicit thematic role reversal comprehension errors. Importantly, these errors—as well as online processing difficulties—are especially frequent in implausible versions of dispreferred (noncanoncial) structures. If one relative clause structure in Chinese is highly dispreferred, the structural factor and plausibility factor should interact additively. If, however, the structures are relatively equally difficult to process, then there should be only a main effect of plausibility. Sentence reading times as well as analyses on lexical interest areas revealed that Chinese readers used plausibility information almost exclusively when reading the sentences. Relative clause structure had no online effect and small but consistent offline effects. Taken together, the results support a slight preference in offline comprehension for Chinese subject-relative clauses, as well as a central role for semantic plausibility, which appears to be the dominant factor in online processing and a strong determinant of offline comprehension.

The influences of proficiency levels and working memory capacities on sentence comprehension by Japanese learners of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 143-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Suda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Object Relative

Examining influences of two participant factors, i.e., proficiency and working memory (WM), in second language (L2) sentence processing, we discuss how Japanese learners of English (JLEs) with distinct proficiency levels and WM capacities comprehend relative clauses in English. Reading times (RTs) were collected from intermediate and elementary levels of JLEs with different WM capacities using a self-paced reading task. The results revealed that: (1) JLEs had difficulty interpreting object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (2) JLEs at the elementary level processed the critical region in subject relative clauses with animate antecedents faster than that in object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (3) JLEs with the large WM capacity read embedded verbs faster than those with the small WM capacity; and (4) RTs of the verb region in the subject relative clause were shorter than those in the object relative clause. From these results, we propose that lower proficient L2 learners depend heavily on animacy information when they comprehend relative clauses though there appears evidence that JLEs also make use of structural information. Moreover, we suggest that WM has a positive role in the L2 comprehension process, similar to findings in previous L2 processing studies.

Relative clause sentence production using augmentative and alternative communication systems

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANN SUTTON ◽  
TANYA GALLAGHER ◽  
JILL MORFORD ◽  
NAVID SHAHNAZ
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
English Word ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Object Relative

Complex syntactic structures may be difficult to recognize when produced using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems that do not contain grammatical markers. The present study investigated adult English speakers' production of Subject and Object relative clause sentences using a picture/symbol-based AAC system with speech output. Most participants avoided the potential ambiguity that resulted from the absence of grammatical markers. They followed spoken English word order when encoding Object relative clause sentences, but altered this order for Subject relative clause sentences. Most participants used constituent proximity to maintain the distinction between Subject and Object relative clause sentences. Results indicate the combined effects of underlying syntactic knowledge and pragmatic variables on the AAC constituent order patterns observed.

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