The aim of this paper is threefold: (i) to examine the prosodic means that German speakers use when they intend high and low attachment interpretations in NP1-NP2GEN R(elative)- C(lause) constructions, (ii) to investigate the prosodic means employed by speakers when confronted with ambiguous NP1-NP2GENR(elative)-C(lause) constructions and (iii) to test the predictions made by the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis. For this purpose, a production experiment was carried out. The results show that speakers do not realize a pause (P) between NP1 and NP2, while they do make a pause (P1) between NP2 and R(elative)-C(lause). P1 is longer in Forced Low attachment condition (the R(elative)-C(lause) unambiguously modifies NP2) than in Forced High attachment condition (the R(elative)-C(lause) unambiguously modifies NP1).
Index Terms: prosody, relative clauses, German
Cite as: Gryllia, S., Kügler, F. (2010) What does prosody tell us about relative clause attachments in German? Proc. Speech Prosody 2010, paper 927
@inproceedings{gryllia10_speechprosody,
author={Stella Gryllia and Frank Kügler},
title={{What does prosody tell us about relative clause attachments in German?}},
year=2010,
booktitle={Proc. Speech Prosody 2010},
pages={paper 927}
}