社団法人 電子情報通信学会 信学技報 THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS, IEICE Technical Report INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS This article is a technical report without peer review, and its polished and/or extended version may be published elsewhere. Copyright ©2011 by IEICE 67 Why object clefts are easier to process than subject clefts in Japanese: Frequency or expectation? Barış KAHRAMAN † Atsushi SATO ‡ Hajime ONO ‡† and Hiromu SAKAI ‡‡ † Faculty of Education, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Anafartalar Campus C1-217, Çanakkale, 17100 Turkey ‡ Graduate School of Letters, Hiroshima University 1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-8524 Japan ‡† Faculty of Science & Engineering, Kinki University 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashi-Osaka, Osaka, 577-8502 Japan ‡‡ Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University 1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-8524 E-mail: † kahraman@comu.edu.tr, ‡ asato1983@hiroshima-u.ac.jp, ‡† onohajime@kindai.ac.jp, ‡‡ hsakai@hiroshima-u.ac.jp Abstract Previous studies have shown that both frequency and expectation for upcoming structures play an important role on sentence processing. However, it is still unclear which one of these factors has a stronger impact on sentence processing. In order to explore the possible effects of frequency and expectation; we conducted a corpus analysis in Japanese in the current study. We first calculated the distribution and transitional probabilities of subject and object clefts, and then compared them with reading time data in our previous study. The results showed the number of subject clefts was higher than object clefts, whereas transitional probability of object clefts was higher than subject clefts at the embedded verb position. The results indicate that expectation can account for the processing difficulty of clefts in Japanese, whereas the simple frequency failed to explain the processing difficulty. Keyword Expectation, Frequency, Corpus Analysis, Sentence processing, Japanese, Subject Clefts, Object Clefts ࡐ࡞日本語目的語分裂文ࡣ主語分裂文ࡼࡾࡶ処理しやすいࡢ࠿ ～頻度࡜予期ࡢ観点࠿ࡽࡢ考察～ カフラマン ࣂルシュ 佐藤 淳 小㔝 創 酒井 弘 あࡽࡲし文処理を扱ࡗた先行研究ࠕࡣ頻度࡜後続すࡿ構造࡟対すࡿࠕ予期ࡀ㔜要࡞役割を果たしいࡿ࡜言わࢀい ࡿ。し࠿し，こࢀࡽࡢ要因ࡢうち࡝ちࡽࡢ方ࡀࡼࡾ強い影響力をࡶࡘ࠿ࡣ明ࡽ࠿࡞ࡣい。本研究ࠕ，ࡣ頻度࡜ࠕ予期 ࡢ 影響࡟ࡘい検討すࡿたࡵ࡟，日本語コーࣃス分析を行い，主語分裂文࡜目的語分裂文ࡢ分布及び遷移的確率を調べた。結果， 主語分裂文ࡢ頻度ࡢ方ࡀ目的語分裂文ࡢ頻度ࡼࡾࡶ高いࡢ࡟対し，埋ࡵ込ࡳ動詞ࡢ位置࡟࠾けࡿ目的語分裂文ࡢ遷移的確率 ࡢ 方ࡀ主語分裂文ࡼࡾࡶ高いこ࡜ࡀわ࠿ࡗた。こࢀࡽࡢ結果を先行研究観察さࢀた読ࡳ時間ࡢデータ࡜照ࡽし合わࡏࡿこ࡜， 日本語࡟࠾けࡿ分裂文処理ࡢ難しさをࠕ予期捉えࡽࢀࡿࡢ࡟対しࠕ頻度ࡣ捉えࡽࢀ࡞いこ࡜ࡀわ࠿ࡗた。 キーワード 予期，頻度，コーࣃス分析，文処理，日本語，主語分裂文，目的語分裂文 1. Introduction Previous studies have pointed out that experience is one of the most important factors that govern the human sentence processing (e.g., Gennari & MacDonald, 2008, 2009 [1],[2]; MacDonald, 1999 [3]; MacDonald & Christiansen [4]; Wells, et al., 2009 [5]). According to these studies, experience is shaped by distributional pattern of linguistic input we are exposed to. However, it is still not fully understood what kind of linguistic input forms our sentence comprehension system. According to one view, the frequency of particular structure is one of the most important factors (e.g., Gennari & MacDonald, 2008, 2009 [1], [2]; Mak, et al., 2002 [6]; Reali & Christiansen, 2007 [7]). People process some structures more easily than other structures, because they are more familiar with frequent structures. For example, in English, subject relative clauses (SRs) are easier to process than object relative clauses (ORs) (e.g., King & Just, 1991 [8]; Staub, 2010 [9]). Reali & Christiansen (2007) reported that SRs are more frequent than ORs. Moreover, they found that SRs occur more frequently with proper nouns while ORs frequently occur with pronouns. Taking these distributional patterns of SRs and ORs into consideration, Reali & Christiansen (2007) conducted a series of experiments, and showed that ORs were processed more easily than SRs when pronouns were used within relative clauses [7]. Similarly, previous studies have shown that SRs frequently occur with