چکیده:
This study examined whether processing ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses(RCs) following a complex determiner phrase (DP) by Persian-speaking learners of L2 English with different proficiency and working memory capacities (WMCs) is affected by semantic priming. The semantic relationship studied was one between the subject/verb of the main clause and one of the DPs in the complex DP to see if, as predicted by Spreading Activation Model, priming one of the DPs affects the L2 learners’ preference. The results of a task using Rapid Serial Visual Processing showed that semantic priming does not affect the choice of the antecedent; rather, the L2 learners' processing is guided by syntactic information. A negative correlation was found between WMC and RC attachment preferences. The findings support the predictions of the chunking hypothesis for L2 learners.
خلاصه ماشینی:
com Abstract This study examined whether processing ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses(RCs) following a complex determiner phrase (DP) by Persian-speaking learners of L2 English with different proficiency and working memory capacities (WMCs) is affected by semantic priming.
A high (DP1) attachment preference has been reported in Dutch (Brysbaert & Mitchell, 1996; Desmet, Brysbaert & De Baecke, 2002), French (Baccino, De Vincenzi & Job, 2000; Colonna, Pynte, & Mitchell, 2000; Quinn, Abdelghany & Fodor, 2000, Zagar, Pynte, & Rativeau, 1997), German (Hemforth, Konieczny, Scheepers & Strube, 1998; Hemforth, Konieczny & Scheepers, 2000), Persian (Arabmofrad & Marefat, 2008), and Spanish (Cuetos & Mitchell, 1988), whereas a low attachment (DP2) preference has been found in Brazilian Portuguese (Finger & Zimmer, 2000; Miyamoto, 1998), English (Cuetos & Mitchell, 1988; Frazier & Clifton, 1996; Deevy, 2000), Norwegian, Swedish, and Romanian (Ehrlich, Fernandez, Fodor, Stenshoel & Vinereanu, 1999).
Although some L2 studies on RC attachment preferences have found no effect of WMC, numerous studies have shown that individuals with high WMC process syntactically ambiguous sentences differently from those with low WMC (Kim & Christianson, 2013; Mendelsohn & Pearlmutter, 1999; Swets, Desmet, Hambrick, & Ferreira, 2007; Vos, Gunter, Schriefers, & Friederici, 2001).
In particular, this study aims to provide answers to the following question: Does priming one of the DPs in the complex DP through associating it with the subject/verb of the sentence influence the RC attachment preferences of Persian L2 learners of English with different proficiencies and WMCs?