Constructing Filler-Gap Dependencies in Chinese Possessor Relative Clauses

PACLIC 19 / Taipei, taiwan / December 1-3, 200

Relative clauses in Cantonese-English bilingual children: Typological challenges and processing motivations

Findings from a longitudinal study of bilingual children acquiring Cantonese and English pose a challenge to the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH; Keenan & Comrie, 1977), which predicts that object relatives should not be acquired before subject relatives. In the children's Cantonese, object relatives emerged earlier than or simultaneously with subject relatives, and in their English, prenominal relatives based on Cantonese emerged first, with object relatives followed by subject relatives. These findings are discussed in light of findings on the typology and acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) and the underlying processing motivations of the NPAH. Prenominal object relatives in the bilingual children's Cantonese and English have the same word order as main clauses and can be analyzed as internally headed RCs. The reconceptualization of RCs as attributive clauses (Comrie, 1998a, 1998b, 2002) is supported by children's early RCs lacking a strict grammatical relationship between the head noun and the predicate. Furthermore, as observed by Diessel and Tomasello (2000, 2005) for English, bilingual children's earliest RCs consist of isolated noun phrases (NPs). The early object relatives produced by bilingual children are therefore essentially NPs with the linear order of a main clause, resulting in a configuration that is conducive to early production. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.published_or_final_versio

Respecting Relations: Memory Access and Antecedent Retrieval in Incremental Sentence Processing

This dissertation uses the processing of anaphoric relations to probe how linguistic information is encoded in and retrieved from memory during real-time sentence comprehension. More specifically, the dissertation attempts to resolve a tension between the demands of a linguistic processor implemented in a general-purpose cognitive architecture and the demands of abstract grammatical constraints that govern language use. The source of the tension is the role that abstract configurational relations (such as c-command, Reinhart 1983) play in constraining computations. Anaphoric dependencies are governed by formal grammatical constraints stated in terms of relations. For example, Binding Principle A (Chomsky 1981) requires that antecedents for local anaphors (like the English reciprocal each other) bear the c-command relation to those anaphors. In incremental sentence processing, antecedents of anaphors must be retrieved from memory. Recent research has motivated a model of processing that exploits a cue-based, associative retrieval process in content-addressable memory (e.g. Lewis, Vasishth & Van Dyke 2006) in which relations such as c-command are difficult to use as cues for retrieval. As such, the c-command constraints of formal grammars are predicted to be poorly implemented by the retrieval mechanism. I examine retrieval's sensitivity to three constraints on anaphoric dependencies: Principle A (via Hindi local reciprocal licensing), the Scope Constraint on bound-variable pronoun licensing (often stated as a c-command constraint, though see Barker 2012), and Crossover constraints on pronominal binding (Postal 1971, Wasow 1972). The data suggest that retrieval exhibits fidelity to the constraints: structurally inaccessible NPs that match an anaphoric element in morphological features do not interfere with the retrieval of an antecedent in most cases considered. In spite of this alignment, I argue that retrieval's apparent sensitivity to c-command constraints need not motivate a memory access procedure that makes direct reference to c-command relations. Instead, proxy features and general parsing operations conspire to mimic the extension of a system that respects c-command constraints. These strategies provide a robust approximation of grammatical performance while remaining within the confines of a independently- motivated general-purpose cognitive architecture

Investigating variation in island effects: A case study of Norwegian extraction

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Natural language & linguistic theory. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-017-9390-z.We present a series of large-scale formal acceptability judgment studies that explored Norwegian island phenomena in order to follow up on previous observations that speakers of Mainland Scandinavian languages like Norwegian accept violations of certain island constraints that are unacceptable in most languages cross-linguistically. We tested the acceptability of wh-extraction from five island types: whether-, complex NP, subject, adjunct, and relative clause (RC) islands. We found clear evidence of subject and adjunct island effects on wh-extraction. We failed to find evidence that Norwegians accept wh-extraction out of complex NPs and RCs. Our participants judged wh-extraction from complex NPs and RCs to be just as unacceptable as subject and adjunct island violations. The pattern of effects in Norwegian paralleled island effects that recent experimental work has documented in other languages like English and Italian (Sprouse et al. 2012, 2016). Norwegian judgments consistently differed from prior findings for one island type: whether-islands. Our results reveal that Norwegians exhibit significant inter-individual variation in their sensitivity to whether-island effects, with many participants exhibiting no sensitivity to whether-island violations whatsoever. We discuss the implications of our findings for universalist approaches to island constraints. We also suggest ways of reconciling our results with previous observations, and offer a systematic experimental framework in which future research can investigate factors that govern apparent island insensitivity

Linguagem e envelhecimento. Discussão sobre a deterioração/preservação da sintaxe em idosos

The study of syntactic processing in old age has been approached mainly from two accounts: one based on memory and the other based on structure and hierarchy. The former is linked to working memory and the latter to a syntactic ability. Some argue that the difficulty in processing sentences with syntactic complexity is due to a decrease in the storage and retention capacity of working memory, while others argue that although the process slows down, syntactic ability is preserved. The focus of the phenomenon lies in the fact that some authors ignore structural distances - syntactic nodes - in processing and only consider in syntactic distance the dependency of two elements (pronoun/referent). This opens a debate about the memory systems at the basis of syntactic processing.  In this framework, the aim of this reflection paper is to discuss these two theoretical approaches and to identify the advantages and limitations of each of them in explaining the phenomenon.El estudio del procesamiento sintáctico en la vejez ha sido abordado, fundamentalmente a partir de dos enfoques: uno basado en la memoria y, otro basado en estructura y jerarquía. El primero vinculado a la memoria de trabajo y el segundo a la habilidad sintáctica. Las evidencias respecto de este procesamiento durante el envejecimiento son divergentes pues unas sostienen que la dificultad para procesar oraciones con complejidad sintáctica se debe a la disminución de la capacidad de almacenamiento y retención de la memoria de trabajo; mientras que otras sostienen que si bien se ralentiza el proceso, la habilidad sintáctica se preserva. El foco del fenómeno radica en que algunos autores ignoran en el procesamiento las distancias estructurales – nodos sintácticos- y solo consideran en la distancia sintáctica la dependencia de dos elementos (pronombre/referente). Esto abre un debate respecto de los sistemas de memoria a la base del procesamiento sintáctico.  En este marco el objetivo de este artículo de reflexión es discutir estas dos aproximaciones teóricas e identificar las ventajas y limitaciones de cada uno de ellos a la hora de explicar el fenómeno.O estudo do processamento sintático na velhice tem sido abordado, fundamentalmente em base a dois enfoques: um deles baseado na memória e, um outro, baseado na estrutura e hierarquia. O primeiro vinculado à memória de trabalho e o segundo à habilidade sintática. As evidências a respeito desse processamento durante o envelhecimento são divergentes pois uma sustenta que a dificuldade para processar orações com complexidade sintática se deve à diminuição da capacidade de armazenamento e retenção da memória de trabalho; enquanto as outras sustentam que, se bem se retarda o processo, a habilidade sintática se preserva. O foco do fenômeno radica em que alguns autores ignoram o processamento das distancias estruturais- nós sintáticos- e só consideram na distância sintática a dependência de dois elementos (pronome/referente). Isto abre um debate respeito dos sistemas de memória em base do processamento sintático. Neste marco o objetivo desse artigo de reflexão é discutir essas duas aproximações teóricas e identificar as vantagens e limitações de cada uma delas na hora de explicar o fenômeno