The Influence of Case and Word Order in Child and Adult Processing of Relative Clauses in Greek

Bibliographic Data

ID5901418
AuthorsKalliopi Katsika (0000-0002-6736-4963, University of Kaiserslautern, corresponding author), Maria Lialiou (0000-0002-9788-1443, University of Cologne), Shanley E M Allen (0000-0002-5421-6750, University of Kaiserslautern, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume7
Issue3
Pages206
Publication date2022-08-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages7030206
OpenAlexW4289517610
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited58

Previous cross-linguistic studies have shown that object relative clauses (ORCs) are typically harder to parse than subject relative clauses (SRCs). The cause of difficulty, however, is still under debate, both in the adult and in the developmental literature. The present study investigates the on-line processing of SRCs and ORCs in Greek-speaking 11- to 12-year-old children and adults, and provides evidence on relative clause processing in Greek-a free word order language. We conducted a self-paced listening task in which we manipulated the type of relative clause (SRC vs. ORC), the RC internal word order (canonical vs. scrambled), and the type of relativizer (relative pronoun vs. complementizer). The results showed that SRCs were overall processed faster than ORCs, providing evidence that children follow similar processing strategies to adults. In addition, accusative case marking facilitated the processing of non-canonical structures in adults but less so in children. Children showed heavy reliance on word order, as they processed nominative and accusative pre-verbal NPs in exactly the same way, while they were strongly garden-pathed in ORCs with post-verbal nominative NPs. We argue that these results are compatible with the Competition Model

Active listening · Dependent clause · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Nominative case · Order (exchange · Parsing · Relative clause · Verb · Word order · Communication · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Artificial Intelligence

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