diff --git a/systems/parse_spacy_pipe.py b/systems/parse_spacy_pipe.py
index 13e4bd4..b532456 100644
--- a/systems/parse_spacy_pipe.py
+++ b/systems/parse_spacy_pipe.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from germalemma import GermaLemma
 
 # Dependency parsing safety limits
-DEFAULT_PARSE_TIMEOUT = 30  # seconds per sentence
+DEFAULT_PARSE_TIMEOUT = 0.5  # seconds per sentence
 DEFAULT_MAX_SENTENCE_LENGTH = 500  # tokens
 
 class TimeoutException(Exception):
@@ -39,22 +39,22 @@
 	
 	# Set up timeout
 	old_handler = signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)
-	signal.alarm(timeout)
+	signal.setitimer(signal.ITIMER_REAL, timeout)
 	
 	try:
 		doc = spacy_model(text)
-		signal.alarm(0)  # Cancel alarm
+		signal.setitimer(signal.ITIMER_REAL, 0)  # Cancel alarm
 		signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, old_handler)
 		return doc, True, None
 	except TimeoutException:
-		signal.alarm(0)  # Cancel alarm
+		signal.setitimer(signal.ITIMER_REAL, 0)  # Cancel alarm
 		signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, old_handler)
 		# Retry without dependency parsing
 		disabled_components = ["ner", "parser"]
 		doc = spacy_model(text, disable=disabled_components)
 		return doc, False, f"Dependency parsing timeout after {timeout}s, processed without dependencies"
 	except Exception as e:
-		signal.alarm(0)  # Cancel alarm
+		signal.setitimer(signal.ITIMER_REAL, 0)  # Cancel alarm
 		signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, old_handler)
 		# Retry without dependency parsing
 		disabled_components = ["ner", "parser"]
@@ -244,8 +244,8 @@
 		logger.info("GermaLemma version: unknown (no __version__ attribute)")
 	
 	# Parse timeout and sentence length limits from environment variables
-	parse_timeout = int(os.getenv("SPACY_PARSE_TIMEOUT", DEFAULT_PARSE_TIMEOUT))
-	max_sentence_length = int(os.getenv("SPACY_MAX_SENTENCE_LENGTH", DEFAULT_MAX_SENTENCE_LENGTH))
+	parse_timeout = float(os.getenv("SPACY_PARSE_TIMEOUT", str(DEFAULT_PARSE_TIMEOUT)))
+	max_sentence_length = int(os.getenv("SPACY_MAX_SENTENCE_LENGTH", str(DEFAULT_MAX_SENTENCE_LENGTH)))
 	
 	logger.info(f"Dependency parsing limits: timeout={parse_timeout}s, max_length={max_sentence_length} tokens")