Frequency Affects Object Relative Clause Processing
Some Evidence in Favor of Usage-Based Accounts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4501596 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Florencia Reali-Arcos (0000-0003-3524-3873, Universidad de los Andes, corresponding author), Florencia Reali (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 685-714 |
| Publication date | 2014-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Learning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/lang.12066 |
| OpenAlex | W2155327621 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 38 |
The processing difficulty of nested grammatical structure has been explained by different psycholinguistic theories. Here I provide corpus and behavioral evidence in favor of usage-based models, focusing on the case of object relative clauses in Spanish as a first language. A corpus analysis of spoken Spanish reveals that, as in English, the overwhelming majority of object relative clauses are pronominal. Spanish allows flexibility of order of surface constituents within the clause. The corpus data revealed significant asymmetries in the frequency of order of surface constituents in pronominal and nonpronominal object relative clauses. Two offline rating tasks and one self-paced reading task were next conducted, showing that complexity judgments and reading processing data mirrored the fine-grained distributional patterns revealed by the corpus analysis. I conclude that frequent object relative clauses may become easier to process as a consequence of use and repetition, and I discuss the implications of these findings for usage-based models of language representation and access
Cognition · Flexibility (engineering) · Frequency · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Object (grammar) · Psycholinguistics · Reading (process) · Relative clause · Repetition (rhetorical device) · Representation (politics) · Sentence · Sentence processing · Statistics · Task (project management) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Mathematics · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
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The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
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Processing of relative clauses is made easier by frequency of occurrence
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Reassessing working memory
Experience and sentence processing
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Radical Construction Grammar
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A New Look at the Acquisition of Relative Clauses
A Discourse Explanation of the Grammar of Relative Clauses in English Conversation
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |