Relativized Minimality: Von der Theorie zur Empirie. Der Einfluss grammatischer Merkmale auf das online und offline Verständnis von Relativsätzen bei Erwachsenen und Kindern im Deutschen
Final Report Abstract
The project aimed at evaluating the predictions of the Relativized Minimality account by testing the comprehension and on-line (eye-tracker-based) processing relative clauses in German-speaking individuals. The following factors were manipulated: gap position (subject- vs. object-extracted relative clauses), disambiguating feature (case vs. number) and embedded constituent (NP vs. pronoun). The Relativized Minimality account predicts subject relative clauses to be processed more accurately than object relative clauses; number disambiguated object relative clauses to be processed more accurately than case disambiguated object relative clauses; relative clauses with an embedded pronoun to be processed more accurately than relative clauses with an embedded NP. In the studies conducted with adult participants, individuals with and without Aphasia were tested. The results support the existence of the subject/object asymmetry in German and that object relative clauses with pronouns are processed more accurately than those with an embedded NP, also by individuals with Aphasia. The expected advantage for number disambiguation was not attested. In the studies conducted with children, individuals with and without (specific) language impairment were tested. The results support the existence of the subject/object asymmetry, but they also show that subject relative clauses with an embedded pronoun are processed less accurately than those with an NP, also in children with language impairment. Moreover, neither number nor case alone make object-initial sentences significantly easier to process for children. In conclusion, the predictions of the Relativized Minimality account as originally proposed, were only partially supported by the German data.
Publications
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(2016) Elicited production of relative clauses in German: Evidence from typically developing children and children with Specific Language Impairment. First Language, 36(3), 203-227
Adani, F., Stegenwallner-Schütz, M., Haendler, Y., & Zukowski, A.
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(2016) Numerus erleichtert das Verständnis nicht-kanonischer Sätze, Spektrum Patholinguistik 9, 87–194
Stegenwallner-Schütz, M., Lassotta, R., Ferchland, L., Adani, F.
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(2017) Feature dissimilarity in the processing of German relative clauses in aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 44, 17-37
Adelt, A., Stadie, N., Lassotta, R., Adani, F., & Burchert, F.
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(2017) Numerusinformation vereinfacht das Satzverständnis: Querschnittsuntersuchungen zum Verständniserwerb von transitiven Sätzen mit Wortstellungsvariation. Logos
Stegenwallner-Schütz, M. & Adani, F.
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(2017) The peaceful co-existence of frequency and structural intervention effects in relative clause comprehension, Frontiers in Psychology, 8:1590
Adani, F., Stegenwallner-Schütz, M. & Niesel T.
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(2017) Verarbeitung von komplexen Sätzen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Autismus Spektrum Störung: Eine Studie zum Verständnis von Subjekt- und Objekt- Relativsätzen, Spektrum Patholinguistik 10, 181–191
Bruno, G., Lassotta, R., Adani, F.
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(2018) (Specifically) Language-impaired Processing of Relative Clauses in German. Poster presented at the 24th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Adani, Haendler, Lassotta, Adelt, Stadie and Burchert
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(2019) What matters in processing German object relative clauses in aphasia - timing or morpho-syntactic cues? Aphasiology
Adelt, A., Burchert, F., Adani, F., Stadie, N.
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(2020). Bayesian analysis as alternative to Frequentist methods: A demonstration with data from language-impaired children's relative clause processing. In: Proceedings of the 44th Boston University Conference on Language Development. S. 168-181
Haendler, Y., Lassotta R., Adelt, A., Stadie, N. & Burchert, F. & Adani, F.
