Another word on parsing relative clauses: Eyetracking evidence from Spanish and English

Ambiguity as to what the relative clause modifies in phrases such as Someon e shot the maid of the actress who was divorced/Alguien disparo contra la c riada de la actriz que estaba divorciada tends to be resolved differently i n different languages (and in different forms of complex noun phrases). In English, there is a weak but seldom significant tendency for the relative c lause to be taken as modifying the second noun phrase, the actress, but in Spanish, several researchers have found a significant preference for the re lative clause's modifying the first noun phrase, la criada. The present exp eriments compare Spanish and English readers' eye movements while reading e xactly comparable sentences in their native languages and find a significan t reading time advantage in Spanish when it is forced to modify the first n oun phrase, but in English when the relative clause is forced to modify the second noun phrase. Theoretical implications of the findings for previous explanations of the phenomenon are discussed.