L1 and L2 syntactic ambiguity resolution of relative clauses

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Dept of English and Applied Linguistics

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Modern Journal of Studies in English Language Teaching and Literature

Volume

3

Issue

1

Publication Date

6-2021

Abstract

Syntactic ambiguity resolution is a cognitive mechanism that interacts with a range oflinguistic skills vital to comprehension. Research in this area has, for most of the time, involved European languages. Meanwhile, there is scant literature on a vast range of languages that possess distinct typological features that may hold an important role in unique and underexplored syntactic processes. Basing upon the Garden-Path Model, this study identifies attachment preference in two less explored languages, Tagalog and Kinaray-a, and in L2 English through relative clause parsing experiments. This also attempts to determine whether adjectival modification of noun phrases has a relationship with attachment preference scores. Chi-square tests of independence were conducted on experimental data and revealed a minimal relationship between select types of relative clauses according to adjectival modification and attachment preference. Data show contrasting patterns between Tagalog and Kinaray-a groups, where the former marginally lean towards low attachment (N2) and the latter towards high attachment (NI). Similar to Kinaray­a L2 English attachment preference takes the N 1 path, a contradiction to past findings on L 1 English.

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Disciplines

English Language and Literature | South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies

Keywords

Tagalog language—Syntax; Kinaray-a language—Syntax; English language—Philippines—Syntax; Tagalog language—Relative clauses; Kinaray-a language—Relative clauses; English language—Philippines—Relative clauses

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