Prosodic Cues in Resolving Syntactic Ambiguity in English by Korean Learners

Prosody, particularly in resolving syntactic ambiguity in relative clause (RC) attachment, presents challenges for both native and non-native speakers. While previous research has identified cross-linguistic differences in prosodic strategies, little is known about how Korean learners of English (KL2) compare to native English speakers (EL1) in using prosodic cues such as duration, pitch, and intensity across different speaking styles. This study investigates how EL1 and KL2 speakers disambiguate RC attachment in spoken production, focusing on casual, clear, and reading speech styles. A total of 1,008 utterances from 10 Korean learners and 4 native speakers were acoustically analyzed to compare prosodic strategies. The results reveal that both EL1 and KL2 speakers consistently rely on duration, pitch, and intensity, particularly in high attachment contexts. Native speakers demonstrated greater prosodic flexibility across speaking styles, whereas KL2 speakers showed limited variation, especially in their use of pitch and intensity. These findings suggest that L1 transfer influences KL2 speakers' prosodic strategies, leading to different approaches to resolving syntactic ambiguity compared to native speakers.