Japanese EFL Learners and English Relative Clauses:
In View of‘Verb-Object Bonding’ and Main Verb Phrase Processing Efficiency
Satoshi Morimoto
Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University

Abstract:
This study aims to see whether the attachment of relative clauses to the head noun is related to the processing efficiency of the matrix verb phrase.
Tomlin (1986) proposes ‘the principle of Verb Object Bonding’stating ‘the object of a transitive verb is more tightly bonded to the verb than is its subject. He examined more than 1,000 languages in the world and showed that in the majority of cases in the majority of languages, sentential elements are not placed between the verb and its direct object. Although we should be cautious to treat the‘Verb -Object Bonding’as a principle because there are a number of counter-examples to it, we are allowed to deal with it as‘a matter of degrees’(Hawkins 1994: 77). Hawkins (1994)’s IC-to-word ratio and IC-to-non-IC ratio would serve to meet this need as scales on which to measure the processing efficiency of syntactic structures. The former is based on the number of words and the latter on syntactical complexity.
Many Japanese EFL learners appear to find difficulty in acquiring English postpositive modification. (Suwabe et al. 1980) The difficulty may result from the difference in word order between the mother and target languages; Japanese relative clauses precede the head noun whereas English relative clauses follow the head noun. Japanese intermediate learners with explicit instruction on English relatives often prepose a relative before the head noun probably due to the persisting L1 influence. We examined the attachment of a relative clause to the matrix object noun in terms of the processing efficiency of the matrix verb phrase. We devised a practice tool with the intention of making Japanese learners become aware that sh / he is marring the processing efficiency of the matrix verb phrase by a relative clause erroneously preposed to the matrix object noun, which consequently creates a matrix word order of V Rel O. If sh / he does aware the inefficiency of the matrix verb processing, sh / he may try to solve the problem by changing the position of the relative to the final position of the head noun.
The result showed the possibility that the acquisition of English relative clauses by Japanese learners is related to the processing efficiency of the matrix verb phrase.

Selected References
Hawkins, John. 1994. A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Suwabe, Makoto et al. 1980. Gotobunseki-no Jissai: chugaku 3 nensei-no shugohaaku (II) Chubuchiku Eigokyouiku gakkai kiyou 10: 15-20
Tomlin Russell S. 1986. Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm