Focus in Relative Clause Construal

Abstract

Two auditory comprehension studies investigated the role of focus, as conveyed by a pitch accent, in the comprehension ofrelativeclauses preceded by a complex NP (e.g. the propeller of the plane that…). In the first experiment, accenting N1 (propeller) or N2 (plane) increased the probability that the accented NP would be taken as head of the relative clause. This supported the predictions of a Focus Attraction Hypothesis as applied to relative clauses. The second experiment manipulated the prosodic status of the relative clause (accented or unaccented) as well as the type of accent on a potential head of the relative clause. It demonstrated that focus on a potential head of a relative clause attracts both accented relative clauses, presumed to convey new information, and unaccented relative clauses, presumed to convey given information. This supported a straight forward version of the Focus Attraction Hypothesis as opposed to a Congruence Hypothesis, which claims that only modifiers marked as conveying new information preferentially are related to other phrases thataremarkedas new. The experiment also demonstrated that a contrastive accent on a potential head of a relative clause attracts relative clauses even more than a focal accent that is appropriate for new information.