Relative Clause Attachment in Native and L2 Arabic

Abdelaadim Bidaoui; Rebecca Foote; Mahmoud Abunasser

Article Details

Relative Clause Attachment in Native and L2 Arabic

Authors:

Abdelaadim Bidaoui | Rebecca Foote | Mahmoud Abunasser

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.2 Issue 2, pp.75-95

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2018

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840831

pISSN:

2421-9835

Keywords:

Abstract:

 Previous studies indicate that there is cross-linguistic variation in relative clause attachment, hypothesized to be due to language-specific structural characteristics (Gibson et al.: 1996). However, research documenting these differences has been carried out on Indo-European languages. The first goal of this study is to investigate relative clause attachment preferences in native speakers of Arabic, a Semitic language in which there are no published data on relative clause attachment preferences. The second goal is to investigate relative clause attachment preferences in second language (L2) learners of Arabic. Some research indicates that L2 learners fail to show any clear attachment preferences in their second language, which has been hypothesized to be due to their inability to apply the phrase-structure based parsing principles (Clahsen & Felser: 2006a) that native speakers employ. We therefore ask whether learners of Arabic will show a relative clause attachment preference, and if so, whether it will be the same preference shown by native speakers. In order to answer these questions, sixteen native speakers of Arabic and sixteen late L1 English learners of L2 Arabic participated in one online task (self-paced reading) and one offline task (attachment preference ).Data were analyzed via ANOVAs and t-tests. Analyses indicated that both native speakers and L2 learners showed a preference for high attachment of relative clauses in the offline preference task, but only the L2 learners showed the same preference in the online task. This study adds to our knowledge of sentence processing in both native and L2 Arabic, an understudied language in which relatively little research exists on either population. The findings of this study support structurally-based accounts of relative clause attachment preferences. They also provide evidence against the claim that L2 learners do not use native-like parsing principles in sentence comprehension.

Article Details

Relative Clause Attachment in Native and L2 Arabic

Authors:

Abdelaadim Bidaoui | Rebecca Foote | Mahmoud Abunasser

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.2 Issue 2, pp.75-95

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2018

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840831

pISSN:

2421-9835

L2 Arabic

sentence processing

relative clause attachment preferences

Shallow Structure Hypothesis

Issues

Article Details

Relative Clause Attachment in Native and L2 Arabic

Authors: Abdelaadim Bidaoui | Rebecca Foote | Mahmoud Abunasser

Publisher: المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal: International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.2 Issue 2, pp.75-95

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 2/2018

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2001840831

pISSN: 2421-9835

L2 Arabic

sentence processing

relative clause attachment preferences

Shallow Structure Hypothesis

Issues

Authors:

Abdelaadim Bidaoui | Rebecca Foote | Mahmoud Abunasser

Publisher:

المجلة الدولية للسانيات العربية

Journal:

International Journal of Arabic Linguistics Vol.2 Issue 2, pp.75-95

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

2/2018

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840831

pISSN:

2421-9835