Bilingual Sentence Processing

Relative clause attachment in English and Spanish

Author

Eva M. Fernández | Queens College - City University of New York

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027224989 (Eur) | EUR 110.00

ISBN 9781588113450 (USA) | USD 165.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027296788 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

The cross-linguistic differences documented in studies of relative clause attachment offer an invaluable opportunity to examine a particular aspect of bilingual sentence processing: Do bilinguals process their two languages as if they were monolingual speakers of each? This volume provides a review of existing research on relative clause attachment, showing that speakers of languages like English attach relative clauses differently than do speakers of languages like Spanish. Fernández reports the findings of an investigation with monolinguals and bilinguals, tested using speeded ("on-line") and unspeeded ("off-line") methodology, with materials in both English and Spanish. The experiments reveal similarities across the groups when the procedure is speeded, but differences with unspeeded questionnaires: The monolinguals replicate the standard cross-linguistic differences, while bilinguals have language-independent preferences determined by language dominance — bilinguals process stimuli in either of their languages according to the general preferences of monolinguals of their dominant language.

[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 29] 2003. xx, 294 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.29

Table of Contents

List of tables | p. ix

List of figures | p. xiii

List of appendixes | p. xv

Abstract | p. xvii

Foreword | p. xix

Introduction | pp. 1–4

Cross-linguistic differences in sentence processing: The relative clause attachment ambiguity | pp. 5–66

Language dependency and bilingual sentence processing | pp. 67–96

Materials evaluation: Quality control for experimental sentences | pp. 97–124

Monolingual experimental data on relative clause attachment preferences | pp. 125–159

Bilingual experimental data on relative clause attachment preferences | pp. 161–209

Conclusions | pp. 211–220

Appendixes | pp. 221–271

Author index | pp. 285–288

Subject index | pp. 289–292

“Overall, the findings in this book are stimulating and thought provoking.”

Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach, Ohio State University, in Studies in Language 30(1), 2006

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