Syntactic attachment preferences of relative clauses in school children

Abstract

This research studies the syntactic attachment preferences of relative clauses with double nominal antecedent (The journalist interviewed the daughter of the colonel who had an accident) in 2nd, 5th and 8th primary school children. Three questionnaires were answered and children's responses were compared with those of 40 undergraduate students. In addition, verbal working memory and phonological memory were measured in the school children to examine possible relationships with their attachment preferences. Results indicate that as children progress through school, they behave like adult speakers, opting for high attachment, although noun animacy can bias their interpretation for the low attachment. There were no correlations between memory measures and the responses to the questionnaires.