DETERMINACIÓN DEL PATRÓN PROSÓDICO DE LAS ORACIONES AMBIGUAS CON ADJUNCIÓN ALTA DE LA CLÁUSULA DE RELATIVO.

Prosodic and syntactic structures correspond to different levels of analysis of language; however, there is a relation between them that constitutes a powerful tool when facing syntactically ambiguous sentences (Price et al. 1991:1). Robust evidence has been found in Spanish of the preference for high attachment of the relative clause in syntactically ambiguous sentences. Most of the research concerning the topic has focused on finding out how people disambiguate these sentences when reading in silence with on-line or off-line tasks and how the working memory operates in doing so. Few researchers have incorporated the study of the underlying melody patterns in this type of sentence. The present research describes the underlying prosodic pattern of ambiguous sentences with high attachment of relative clause produced by native speakers of Spanish from Concepcion. The recorded utterances were labeled using the ToBI system and submitted to perceptual judgment to confirm the prosodic pattern of preference for high-attachment of the relative clause as the phonetic-phonologic support that aids listeners to disambiguate this type of sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]