Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Prosodic Cues in Relative ClauseAttachmentAmbiguity Resolution:An Experimental Comparison of English Native Speakers and Chinese EFL Learners

Jiacheng HanQingdao University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This study investigates the relative prosodic cue weighting (intensity, pitch, pause, lengthening) in resolving English relative clause (RC) attachment ambiguity by English native speakers and Chinese EFL learners. A two-alternative forced-choice experiment, combined with a d' analysis to ensure a bias-free measure of perceptual sensitivity, revealed qualitatively different cue-weighting strategies. Native English speakers demonstrated a flexible and sequential strategy, prioritising pitch accent as a decisive feature. In contrast, Chinese EFL learners showed a strong reliance on pause; their accuracy was highest in "pauses alone" conditions, while other prosodic features served as distractors. The two groups also showed opposing biases in standard syntactic analysis (native: low attachment; learners: high attachment). These results provide strong evidence for inappropriate intonation transfer from the native language, with learners inappropriately transferring the functional roles of Chinese tone to English. This study highlights why we need to start teaching the syntactic side of prosody more explicitly in L2 classrooms.

Keywords: prosodic cues; ambiguity resolution; prosodic transfer; relative clause; second language acquisition
Published: September 9, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT26608
Volume: CHR Vol.75
pp. 124-130
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