Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Role of Animacy in Turkish Relative Clause Production and Distribution

  • Published:
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Relative clause (RC) production has been a major tool used for understanding language production mechanism in experimental linguistics. The present study analyzes language production mechanisms in Turkish by utilizing animacy effect on RC production. A picture description task was applied to two participant groups. The data were combined and analyzed to see how animacy influenced RC formation. The outcomes were also compared to the distributions of RC use in corpus data. Both participant and corpus data demonstrated significant level of passivization for RCs with animate heads, strongly affirming the grammatical function assignment proposal by Bock and Warren (Cognition 21(1):47-67, 1985) as well as the premise of Production–Distribution-Comprehension account (MacDonald in Front Psychol 4:226, 2013), emphasizing the relationship between language production mechanisms and typology. However, the corpus data were observed to have higher numbers of passivization with animate condition. Accordingly, a coarse comparison of the participant RC production proportions in the current study with some other crosslinguistic research suggests that some language-specific or discourse-related interventions can also compete with the animacy accessibility during the sentence planning procedure, which needs an extra inquiry especially in Turkish language.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akal, T. (2021). Recency preference in ambiguous relative clause attachment in Turkish. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 17(1), 139–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altmann, G., & Steedman, M. (1988). Interaction with context during human sentence processing. Cognition, 30(3), 191–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(88)90020-0

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Altmann, L. J. P., & Kemper, S. (2006). Effects of age, animacy and activation order on sentence production. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(1–3), 322–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/0169096054400006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Başer, Z. (2018). Syntactic priming of relative clause attachment in monolingual Turkish speakers and Turkish learners of English (12622043) [Doctoral dissertation, Middle East Technical University]. Metu Library

  • Biber, D., & Conrad, S. (2009). Register, genre, and style (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814358

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J. K., & Warren, R. K. (1985). Conceptual accessibility and syntactic structure in sentence formulation. Cognition, 21(1), 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90023-X

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J.K., and Levelt, W. (1994). Language production: Grammatical encoding. In Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 945–984). Academy Press. https://www.mpi.nl/world/materials/publications/levelt/Bock_Levelt_Language_1994.pdf.

  • Boran, B. (2018). The role of context on processing of Turkish subject and object relative clauses (29) [Master’s thesis, Hacettepe University]. İngiliz Dilbilimi Bölümü Tez Koleksiyonu.

  • Bresnan, J., Cueni, A., Nikitina, T., & Baayen, R. H. (2007). Predicting the dative alternation. In G. Bouma, I. Kraemer, & J. Zwarts (Eds.), Cognitive foundations of interpretation (pp. 69–94). Royal Netherlands Academy of Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulut, T., Yarar, E., & Wu, D. (2020). Comprehension of Turkish relative clauses: Evidence from eye-tracking and corpus analysis. Dil Konuşma ve Yutma Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2(3), 211–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, L.K. (2012). The DP-adjoined plural in Yucatec Maya and the syntax of plural marking (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Arizona, Arizona, the United States.

  • Cook, V. (2003). Changing the first language in the L2 user’s mind: Introduction to L2 effects on the L1. Vivian cook. http://www.viviancook.uk/Writings/Papers/EffectsIntro.htm

  • Coupland, N. (2011). Voice, place and genre in popular song performance. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15(5), 573–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00514.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craik, F. I. M., & Byrd, M. (1982). Aging and cognitive deficits: The role of attentional resources. In F. I. M. Craik & S. Trehub (Eds.), Aging and cognitive processes (pp. 191–211). Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Craik, F. I. M. (1986). A functional account of age differences in memory. In F. Klix & H. Hagendorf (Eds.), Human memory and cognitive abilities: Mechanisms and performances (pp. 409–422). Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crain, S., & Steedman, M. (1985). On not being led up the garden path: The use of context by the psychological parser. In D. R. Dowty, L. Karttunen, & A. M. N. Zwicky (Eds.), Natural language parsing (pp. 320–358). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • De Smedt, K. J., & Kempen, G. (1987). Incremental sentence production, self-correction and coordination. In G. Kempen (Ed.), Natural language generation: New results in artificial intelligence, psychology and linguistics (pp. 365–376). Kluwer Academic Publisher.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dewart, M. (1979). Role of animate and inanimate nouns in determining sentence voice. British Journal of Psychology, 70, 135–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erguvanli, E. E. (1984). The function of word order in turkish grammar. University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feleki, E. (1996). The effects of conceptual accessibility on language production: Experimental evidence from modern Greek. University of Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, C. A. (1994). Dialect, register, and genre: Working assumptions about conventionalization. In D. Biber & E. Finegan (Eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on register (pp. 15–30). Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, F. (1994). Choice of passive voice is affected by verb type and animacy. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 715–736.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, V. S., & Pashler, H. (2002). Central bottleneck influences on the processing stages of word production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(6), 1187–1199.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garretson, G., O’Connor, M., Skarabela, B., Hogan, M. (2004). Coding practices used in the project optimal typology of determiner phrases. On-line. Boston University. http://npcorpus.bu.edu/documentation/index.html.

  • Gennari, S. P., & MacDonald, M. C. (2008). Semantic indeterminacy in object relative clauses. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(2), 161–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.07.004

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gennari, S.P., Mirkovic, J. and MacDonald, M. C. (2005, March 25–27). The role of animacy in relative clause production [Paper presentation]. The 17th Annual Cuny Conference on Human Sentence Processing. USA.

  • Gennari, S. P., & MacDonald, M. C. (2009). Linking production and comprehension processes: The case of relative clauses. Cognition, 111, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gennari, S. P., Mirković, J., & Macdonald, M. C. (2012). Animacy and competition in relative clause production: A cross-linguistic investigation. Cognitive Psychology, 65(2), 141–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.03.002

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hoeks, J. C., Vonk, W., & Schriefers, H. (2002). Processing coordinated structures in context: The effect of topic-structure on ambiguity resolution. Journal of Memory and Language, 46(1), 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.2001.2800

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao, Y., & MacDonald, M. C. (2013). Experience and generalization in a connectionist model of Mandarin Chinese relative clause processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(767), 2013. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.00767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao, Y., Gao, Y., & MacDonald, M. C. (2014). Agent-patient similarity affects sentence structure in language production: Evidence from subject omissions in Mandarin. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1015. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01015

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao, Y., & MacDonald, M. C. (2016). Production predicts comprehension: Animacy effects in Mandarin relative clause processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 87–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.11.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiza, H., Reilly, J., Verhoeven, L., Baruch, E., & Rosado, E. (2002). Passive voice constructions in written texts: A cross-linguistic developmental study. Written Language & Literacy, 5(2), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.5.2.03jis

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahraman, B. (2015). Processing Turkish relative clauses in context. In D. Zeyrek, Ç.S. Şimşek, J. Rehbein and U. Atas (Eds.), Turcologica: Ankara papers in Turkish and Turkic linguistics, (Vol. 103, pp. 98–109). Harrassowitz Verlag.

  • Kecskes, I., and Papp, T. (2000). Foreign language and mother tongue. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

  • Kempen, G., & Hoenkamp, E. (1987). An incremental procedural grammar for sentence formulation. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 11, 201–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kırkıcı, B. (2004). The processing of relative clause attachment ambiguities in Turkish. Turkic Languages, 8, 111–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehmann, C. (1986). On the typology of relative clauses. Linguistics, 24(4), 663–680. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1986.24.4.663

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loui, S., and Gennari, S.P. (2008). The role of animacy in the production of Greek relative clauses [Conference session]. In Proceedings of the 2nd ISCA Workshop on Experimental Linguistics, Greece. https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/exling_2008/papers/exl8_145.pdf.

  • MacDonald, M. C. (2013). How language production shapes language form and comprehension. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 226.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. A., & Chomsky, N. (1963). Finitary models of language users. In D. Luce (Ed.), Handbook of mathematical psychology (pp. 2–419). Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montag, J. L., & MacDonald, M. C. (2014). Visual salience modulates structure choice in relative clause production. Language and Speech, 57(2), 163–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830913495656

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Montag, J. L., Matsuki, K., Kim, J. Y., & Macdonald, M. C. (2017). Language specific and language general motivations of production choices: A multi-clause and multi-language investigation. Collabra Psychology, 3(1), 201–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Özçelik, Ö. (2004). Processing relative clauses in Turkish as a second language (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the United States of Amerika.

  • Özge, D., Marinis, T., and Zeyrek, D. (2009). Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in monolingual Turkish children. In S. Ay, Ö. Aydın, İ. Ergenç, S. Gökmen, S. İşsever, and D. Peçenek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference of Turkish Linguistics (ICTL) Harrasowitz Verlag.

  • Özge, D., Marinis, T. and Zeyrek, D. (2010a). Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in monolingual Turkish children. In S. Ay, Ö. Aydın, İ. Ergenç, S. Gökmen, S. İşsever ve D. Peçenek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference of Turkish Linguistics (ICTL) (pp. 341–350). Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag.

  • Özge, D. and Marinis, T. and Zeyrek, D. (2010b). Production of relative clauses in monolingual Turkish children. In J. Chandlee, K. Iserman, and L. Keil (Eds.). Proceedings of the 34th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Boston

  • Özge, D., Marinis, T., & Zeyrek, D. (2015). Incremental processing in head-final child language: Online comprehension of relative clauses in Turkish-speaking children and adults. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 30(9), 1230–1243. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2014.995108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2013). How tightly are production and comprehension interwoven? Frontiers in Psychology, 4(238), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prat-Sala, M., & Branigan, H. P. (2000). Discourse constraints on syntactic processing in language production: A cross-linguistic study in English and Spanish. Journal of Memory and Language, 42(2), 168–182. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prat-Sala, M., Shillcock, R., & Sorace, A. (2000). Animacy effects on the production of object-dislocated descriptions by Catalan-speaking children. Journal of Child Language, 27(1), 97–117. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000999004031

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A. (2000). Steps towards the explanation of adult age differences in cognition. In T. J. Perfect & E. A. Maylor (Eds.), Models of cognitive aging (pp. 19–49). Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Say, B. (n.d.) METU Turkish Corpus (MTC). Available at https://ii.metu.edu.tr/metu-corpora-research-group.

  • Siewierska, A. (1988). Word Order Rules In W. Ashby (Ed.). Croom Helm.

  • Smith, M., & Wheeldon, L. (2001). Syntactic priming in spoken sentence production: An online study. Cognition, 78, 123–164.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Solak, H.G. (2007). Animacy effect on sentence structure choice: A study on Turkish learners of L2 English. [Master’s thesis]. Middle East Technical University.

  • Tanaka, M., Branigan, H., & Pickering, M. (2005). The role of animacy in Japanese Sentence Production. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, M., Branigan, H.P., and Pickering, M.J. (2011). The production of head-initial and head-final languages. In Processing and producing head-final structures (vol. 38, pp. 113–129). Springer.

  • Tannenbaum, P. H., & Williams, F. (1968). Generation of active and passive sentences as a function of subject or object focus. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 7(1), 246–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(68)80197-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turan, C. (2018). An eye-tracking investigation of attachment preferences to relative clauses in Turkish [PhD Dissertation]. Hacettepe University.

  • Underhill, R. (1976). Turkish grammar. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press.

  • Van Nice, K. Y., & Dietrich, R. (2003). Task sensitivity of animacy effects: Evidence from German picture descriptions. Linguistics, 5, 825–849.

    Google Scholar 

  • VERBI Software. (2019). MAXQDA 2020 [computer software]. Berlin, Germany: VERBI Software. Available from maxqda.com.

  • Wu, F., Kaiser, E., & Andersen, E. (2012). Animacy effects in Chinese relative clause processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27(10), 1489–1524. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.614423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zacks, R. T., Hasher, L., & Li, K. Z. H. (2000). Human memory. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 293–358). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Çankaya, Ankara, Türkiye

    Aybüke Uzunca

  2. Faculty of Letters, Department of English Linguistics, Hacettepe University, Beytepe Campus, Çankaya, Ankara, Türkiye

    Taylan Akal

Authors
  1. Aybüke Uzunca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Taylan Akal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Taylan Akal.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendices

Appendix

Appendix 1: The results of normality analyses

See Tables 9, 10, 11.

Table 9 Picture description task G1 Shapiro–Wilk test results
Full size table
Table 10 Picture description task G2 Shapiro–Wilk test results
Full size table
Table 11 Inter-item correlation matrices for G1 picture description task
Full size table

Appendix 2: The Results of Reliability Analyses

See Tables 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

Table 12 Cronbach’s alpha values for G1 picture description task
Full size table
Table 13 Item total statistics for g1 picture description task
Full size table
Table 14 Inter-item correlation matrices for G2 picture description task
Full size table
Table 15 Cronbach’s alpha values for G2 picture description task
Full size table
Table 16 Item total statistics for G2 picture description task
Full size table

Appendix 3: Descriptives of the Participant Groups Included in Mann Whitney U Test

See Tables 17, 18.

Table 17 Participant answer distributions for each participant group for animate condition
Full size table
Table 18 Participant answer distributions for each participant group for inanimate condition
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Uzunca, A., Akal, T. The Role of Animacy in Turkish Relative Clause Production and Distribution. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 2517–2544 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-10010-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-10010-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation