Language Processing Evidence for Linguistic Structure

©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!! ISSN!1989=8525! ! ! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! ! Claudia!Felser! felser@uni=potsdam.de! University-of-Potsdam-- DOI!to!be!assigned! ! Abstract:!This! article! illustrates! how! data! from! language! processing! experiments! might! bear! on! theoretical!linguistic! issues! and! controversies.! Based!on!the!results!from!real=time!processing!studies!of!subject!raising!vs.! subject! control! structures! and! successive=cyclic! wh=movement! in! English,! and! of! long=distance! scrambling! in! Japanese,! this! article! examines! how! language!processing!data!can!help!shed!light!on!the!nature!of!the!linguistic! representations!of!different!types!of!non=canonically!ordered!sentences.!! Keywords:" Languageprocessing,- English,- Japanese,- scrambling,- wh>movement,- raising,-control." Resumen:!Este!artículo!ilustra!cómo!datos!provenientes!de!experimentos!de! procesamiento!del!lenguaje!pueden!arrojar!luz!sobre!algunos!temas!(algunos! controvertidos)! relacionados! con! la! teoría!lingüística.! Basado! en! los! resultados! de! estudios! de! procesamiento! a! tiempo! real! de! estructuras! de! ascenso! de! sujeto! vs.! estructuras! de! control! de! sujeto! y! movimiento! qu=! sucesivamente!cíclico!en!inglés,!así!como!desplazamiento!libre!(scrambling)! de! larga! distancia! en! japonés,! este! artículo! examina! cómo! los! datos! de! procesamiento!del!lenguaje!pueden!ayudar!a!!dilucidar!la!naturaleza!de!las! representaciones! lingüísticas! de!distintos! tipos! de!oraciones!ordenadas! de! forma!no!canónica.!! Palabras" clave:!Procesamientolingüístico,- inglés,- japonés,- scrambling,- movimiento-qu>,-ascenso,-control.!- Resumo:!Este! artigo! ilustra! de! que! forma! dados! experimentais! do! processamento! de! linguagem!podem! ser! suportados! por! questões! linguísticas! teóricas! e! por! controvérsias.! Com! base! nos! resultados! de! processamento!em!tempo!real!em!estudos!de!subida!de!sujeito!vs.!estruturas! de! controlo! de! sujeito! e! movimento! wh=! sucessivo! cíclico! em! inglês,! e! de! scrambling!de!longa!distância!em!japonês,!este!artigo!analisa!a!forma!como!os! dados!de!processamento!de!linguagem!podem!ajudar!a!esclarecer!a!natureza! das! representações! linguísticas! dos! diferentes! tipos! de! orações! não= canónicas.! Palavras=chave:!Processamentode- linguagem,- Inglês,- Japonês,- scrambling,- movimento-wh>,-subida,-controlo."" " ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 2! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! 1.!Introduction! Grammatical!theory!and!description!have!traditionally!relied,!to!a!large! extent,! on! informally! gathered! intuitive! judgements.! This! has! prompted! methodological! criticism! from! other! cognitive! science! disciplines! as! well! as! from!some!linguists!(Ferreira!2005,!Wasow!&!Arnold!2005,!Gibson!&!Fedorenko! 2010,! to! name! but! a! few).! Consider,! for! instance,! the! following! quote! from! Ferreira!(2005:!370),!whose!criticism!specifically!targets!Chomsky'ʹs!(1995,!and! later)!Minimalist-Program!(MP):! […]! the! empirical! foundation! for! the! MP! is! almost! exclusively! intuition! data!obtained!from!highly!trained!informants!(i.e.,!the!theorists!themselves).!Data! from! other! areas! such! as! neurolinguistics,! computational! linguistics,! and! psycholinguistics!were!not!taken!into!account!at!all,!nor!were!any!insights!from!the! rest!of!the!cognitive!sciences.!Of!course,!this!was!true!of!other!theoretical!shifts!in! generative!grammar,!but!it!is!particularly!striking!today!given!the!broad!range!of! methods!now!available!for!studying!language.!! While!Ferreira'ʹs!assessment!may!seem!unduly!harsh,!and!singling!out! the!MP!from!the!set!of!current!grammatical!frameworks!not!obviously!justified! (see! e.g.! Marantz! 2005),! there! is! nevertheless! some! truth! in! her! remarks.! However,! things! are! looking! up! in! that! a! growing! number! of! theoretical! linguists! have! started! broadening! their! methodological! inventory.! Although! borrowing! methods! from! other! cognitive! science! disciplines! does! not! necessarily! help! resolve! theoretical! controversies! or! help! us! decide! between! alternative! grammatical! formalisms,! any! such! moves! towards! extending! theoretical!linguistics'ʹ!empirical!base!should!presumably!be!welcomed.!! One!way!of!improving!linguistic!data!collection!methodology!is!to!use! formally! gathered! judgement! data! from! larger! numbers! of! non=biased! informants!(compare!e.g.!Bard,!Robertson!&!Sorace!1996,!Schütze!1996,!Cowart! 1997!–!but!see!Phillips!2009!for!a!defence!of!informal!judgements).!Somewhat! reassuringly,! for! linguists! who! lack! the! resources! or! expertise! for! running! larger=scale!acceptability!judgement!experiments,!there!is!evidence!suggesting! that! informal! judgements! tend! to! concur! with! experimentally! gathered! ones! (compare!e.g.!Sprouse!&!Almeida!2012).1! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! 1!This! is! not! necessarily! the! case! for! data! gathered! using! timed! or! speeded! judgement!tasks,!however!(see!e.g.!Staum!Casasanto!&!Sag!2008,!Radford,!Felser!&! Boxell!2012.! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 3! Claudia!Felser! ! Whereas! the! importance! of! controlled! experiments! to! improve! the! validity! of! grammaticality! judgements! is! fairly! widely! acknowledged! (Featherston!2005,!Alexopoulou!&!Keller!2007,!Fanselow!&!Féry!2008,!Radford! et!al.!2012,!to!name!but!a!few),!many!theoretical!linguists!are!skeptical!about!the! importance! of! real=time! processing! experiments! for! grammatical! theory= building.!This! article!aims!to!show!that! sentence!processing!data!can!indeed! provide!important!insights!for!linguistic!theory!(see!also!Felser!inpress!for!a! more! comprehensive! review! and! discussion).! Linguistic! theories! seek! to! characterise! our! linguistic! knowledge,! and! linguistic! knowledge! is! what! underlies! our! ability! to! process! language.! Experimental! psycholinguistic! techniques!such!as!cross=modal!priming,!reading=time!measurements!or!event= related! brain! potentials! allow! us! to! chart! the! moment=by=moment! processes! involved!in!sentence!comprehension!and!can!provide!a!window!on!syntactic! structure=building! or! dependency! formation! as! it! occurs! (for! detailed! descriptions! of! these! methodologies,! see! e.g.! Nicol! &! Swinney! 1989,! Just,! Carpenter!&!Woolley!1982,!Kaan!2007,!Staub!&!Rayner!2007).!! Although!invisible!or!inaudible!elements!–!such!as!silent!copies!assumed! to! be! left! behind! by! syntactic! movement! =! cannot! be! made! visible! directly,! appropriately! designed! processing! tasks! allow! us! to! observe! their! effects! on! sentence!comprehension!(Nicol!&!Swinney!1989,!Gibson!&!Warren!2004,!among! many! others)! or! production! (e.g.! Franck,! Soare,! Frauenfelder! &! Rizzi! 2010).! Silent! syntactic! constituents! have! traditionally! played! an! important! role! in! generative=transformational! grammar,! whereas! non=transformational! or! lexicalist! frameworks! typically! make! do! without! them! (compare! e.g.! Sag! &! Fodor!1994).!! The!primary!aim!of!this!article!is!to!illustrate!how!data!from!language! processing! tasks! can! provide! insights! into! the! nature! of! syntactic! representations!and!thus!help!broaden!the!empirical!base!of!linguistic!theory.!I! will! present! three! example! studies! here,! each! making! use! of! a! different! experimental! methodology,! all! of! which! are! drawn! from! research! that! I! was! involved!in!during!my!time!at!the!University!of!Essex.!Study!1!examined!long= distance!scrambling!in!Japanese!and!yielded!results!which!bear!on!the!question! of! VP! configurationality! in! so=called! ‘free! word! order’! languages! (Nakano,! Felser! &! Clahsen! 2002).! Study! 2! looked! at! processing! reflexes! of! successive= ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 4! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! cyclic! wh=movement! (Marinis,! Roberts,! Felser! &! Clahsen! 2005)! and! study! 3! provides! reading=time! evidence! for! structural! differences! between! two! superficially!identical!types!of!infinitival!complement!constructions!(Batterham! 2009).!! 2.!Study!1:!VP!configurationality!! Our! first! example! illustrates! how! processing! data! may! bear! on! the! question!of!whether!or!not!verb!phrases!in!free!word!order!languages!have!a! configurational!structure.!Japanese,!for!example,!is!well!known!for!permitting! highly!flexible!ordering!of!argument!phrases,!illustrated!in!(1)!below,!with!(1a)! representing! the! canonical! ordering! and! (1b=f)! showing! non=canonical! or! scrambled!word!orders.2!! (1)!a.!NP=NOM!!NP=DAT!!NP=ACC!! V! !! b.!!NP=NOM!!NP=ACC!NP=DAT! V! !c.!NP=DAT!!NP=NOM!NP=ACC!! V! !! d.!NP=DAT!NP=ACC!NP=NOM! V! !! e.!NP=ACC!NP=NOM!NP=DAT! V! !! f.!NP=ACC! NP=DAT!NP=NOM! V! Generative=transformational! accounts! of! scrambling! have! typically! claimed!that! non=canonical!word!orders! are!derived!from! canonical!ones!via! leftward! syntactic! movement! (Saito! 1985,! Nemoto! 1995,! among! others).! However,!the!derivation!of!'ʹshort'ʹ!(or!clause=bound)!scrambling!structures!as!in! (1)!is!theoretically!controversial.!As!an!alternative!to!movement=based!analyses,! it!has!been!suggested!that!the!various!possible!word!orders!in!(1)!may!be!base= generated.!Some!base=generation!accounts!assume!that!Japanese!verb!phrases! have! a! 'ʹflat'ʹ! rather! than! a! configurational! structure,! which! then! allows! for! arguments!to!be!merged!and!assigned!thematic!roles!in!any!order!in!principle! (Hale! 1980,! Farmer! 1984).! Another! type! of! base=generation! account! assumes! that!scrambled!arguments!are!initially!merged!into!non=thematic!positions!=!for! instance,!as!IP!adjuncts!=!but!subsequently!undergo!LF!movement!(i.e.!lowering)! into! VP=internal! thematic! positions! (Bošković! &! Takahashi! 1998).! Typically,! both!leftward!movement!and!lowering!accounts!assume!that!Japanese!VPs!are! configurational,! with! silent! copies! (or! unfilled! thematic! positions)! serving! as! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! 2!Japanese!is!a!case!marking!language!(NOM!=!nominative,!DAT!=!dative,!ACC! =!accusative,!GEN!=!genitive).! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 5! Claudia!Felser! ! placeholders! for! scrambled! constituents.! Non=configurational! accounts,! in! contrast,! do! not! assume! scrambled! arguments! to! be! linked! to! any! configurationally!determined,!unfilled!slots!within!VP.!! From!a!left=to=right!processing!perspective,!fronted!constituents!must!be! held!in!working!memory!until!a!corresponding!'ʹgap'ʹ!can!be!identified!further! downstream! in! the! sentence.! There! is! ample! evidence! suggesting! that,! when! processing!non=canonical!word!orders!(notably,!those!involving!A'ʹ=movement),! the! processor! actively! searches! for! a! gap! (Frazier! &! Clifton! 1989).! When! a! suitable!gap!is!encountered,!the!fronted!element!is!retrieved!from!memory!and! mentally! reconstructed! at! this! point,! and! (ultimately)! linked! to! its! subcategoriser! or! other! lexical! licenser! (compare! e.g.! Gibson! 1998). 3! Psycholinguistic! experiments! can! provide! indirect! evidence! for! syntactic! movement,! for! example! by! measuring! its! effects! on! real=time! processing! or! comprehension! difficulty.! The! underlying! rationale! here! is! that! processing! filler=gap!dependencies!is!hypothesized!to!be!computationally!more!costly!than! processing!canonical!or!base=generated!word!orders.!Although!formal!linguistic! theories! do! not! normally! make! any! claims! about! processing,! sentence! processing! research! has! found! robust! reflexes! of! filler=gap! dependency! formation!and!of!relative!processing!difficulty!being!affected!by,!among!other! things,!the!complexity!of!the!constituent!extracted!from!(Gibson!1998).!Reading= time!studies!of!short!scrambling!have!thus!far!yielded!mixed!results,!however,! with! only! some! reporting! evidence! of! scrambled! word! orders! being! more! difficult! to! process! than! canonical! ones! (see! Sekerina! 2003! for! review! and! discussion).! It! is! conceivable,! for! instance,! that,! even! if! clause=internal! word! order!variations!like!those!shown!in!(1b=f)!are!created!through!movement,!any! corresponding!differences!in!processing!difficulty!are!too!small!to!consistently! yield!measurable!effects.!! Another!line!of!experimental!research!has!investigated!the!hypothesized! mental! reconstruction! of! moved! constituents! at! specific! structural! positions.! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! 3!The!term!'ʹgap'ʹ!is!commonly!used!in!the!psycholinguistic!literature!to!refer!to! unfilled! structural! positions! or! 'ʹmissing'ʹ! arguments! in! non=canonically! ordered! sentences.!It!does!not!necessarily!correspond!to!any!specific!theoretical!notions!such!as! 'ʹtrace'ʹ!or!'ʹcopy'ʹ.!Fronted!constituents!are!frequently!referred!to!as!'ʹfillers'ʹ,!again!so!as!to! remain!maximally!neutral!with!respect!to!particular!linguistic!formalisms.!! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 6! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! Nakano! et! al.! (2002)! report! the! results! from! two! cross=modal=priming! experiments!which!examined!the!mental!reactivation!of!fronted!constituents!at! hypothesized! preverbal! gap! positions! in! Japanese.! In! this! experimental! paradigm,!participants!are!asked!to!make!simple!lexical!(e.g.!word/non=word)! decisions! to! visually! presented! target! words! while! listening! to! pre=recorded! sentence!stimuli!(Nicol!&!Swinney!1989).!The!rationale!here!is!that!visual!word! recognition! should! be! facilitated! for! words! that! are! identical! or! semantically! related!to!the!sentence!constituent!currently!being!processed.!The!constituent!of! interest! is! usually! either! an! overt! or! a! covert! anaphor,! and! any! antecedent! priming! effects! observed! during! the! processing! of! an! anaphoric! element! are! taken!to!be!indicative!of!real=time!dependency!formation.!Comparing!reaction! times!to!target!words!presented!at!different!points!during!the!sentence!allows! us! to! examine,! for! example,! whether! fronted! constituents! are! mentally! reactivated!at!specific!structural!positions.!! Two! alternative! proposals! have! been! made! in! the! sentence! processing! literature!as!to!how!the!mental!reconstruction!of!fronted!constituents!might!be! accomplished.!They!roughly!correspond!to!the!theoretical!controversy!between! configurational! or! movement=based! accounts! on! the! one! hand,! and! non= configurational! or! lexicalist! accounts! that! do! not! posit! any! silent! syntactic! constituents! on! the! other.! The! first! hypothesis,! often! referred! to! as! the! tracereactivation- hypothesis,! claims! that! displaced! constituents! are! linked! to! their! lexical!subcategoriser!indirectly!via!silent!syntactic!constituents!(e.g.! Bever!&! McElree!1988).!The!direct-association-hypothesis,!on!the!other!hand,!claims!that! displaced! constituents! are! integrated! into! the! thematic! grid! of! their! subcategoriser!directly!via!lexically!based!association,!without!being!mentally! reconstructed!at!specific!structural!positions!(e.g.!Pickering!&!Barry!1991).!For! languages! with! head=final! VPs! such! as! Japanese! or! German,! these! two! competing!hypotheses!give!rise!to!different!predictions!for!cross=modal!priming.! Trace=based!reactivation!should!yield!reactivation!effects!before!listeners!had!the! chance! to! fully! process! the! lexical! subcategoriser,! as! they! should! mentally! reconstruct!the!fronted!element!at!the!preverbal!gap!position!on!the!basis!of! their! knowledge! of! the! configurational! VP! structure,! and! independently! of! lexical=semantic!properties!of!the!verb.!Direct!association,!in!contrast,!predicts! that!reactivation!effects!should!be!triggered!by!the!subcategorizing!verb.!! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 7! Claudia!Felser! ! The! auditory! materials! used! in! Nakano! et! al.'ʹs! main! experiment! were! sentences! involving! long=distance! scrambling! of! direct! object! NPs! as! in! (2)! below.! Unlike! short! scrambling! structures! such! as! those! in! (1)! above,! which! show!characteristics!of!both!A=!and!A'ʹ=movement,!long=distance!scrambling!out! of! finite! clauses! shows! typical! characteristics! of! A'ʹ=movement! (compare! e.g.! Saito!1992).! (2)!Suruto,!remon?oi,!! [CP!futari=me=no!!hito=ga!shikai=sha=ni,!! !! and!then!lemon=ACC!! the!second!person=NOM!M.C.=DAT!! ! [CP!sono!kodomo=ga!!onna=no!hito=ni!!gapi!! nedatte=iru!to!]! kotae=ta!]! !! ! that!child=NOM!!female!person=DAT!! asking!!COMP!]!answered]! !’And!then,!a!lemon,!the!second!person!answered!to!the!Master!of!Ceremonies!that!that! child!was!asking!the!woman!for.’! In! (2),! the! direct! object! of! the! most! deeply! embedded! verb! nedatte>iru! 'ʹasking'ʹ,!the!accusative=marked!NP!remon>o!'ʹlemon'ʹ,!has!been!scrambled!to!the! left! edge! of! the! highest! clause.!The! position! marked! 'ʹgap'ʹ! indicates! its! hypothesized! thematic! base! position.! Visual! target! words! that! were! either! identical!or!unrelated!to!remon-were!presented!at!one!of!two!points!during!the! sentence,!at!the!hypothesized!gap!position!or!at!a!control!position!500ms!earlier.! Long=distance!scrambling!was!chosen!here!to!increase!the!relative!difficulty!of! mentally!reconstructing!the!fronted!constituent!at!the!tail!of!this!dependency! compared! to! short! scrambling,! so! as! to! maximize! the! chance! of! obtaining! measurable!reactivation!effects.!! The!results!showed!that!the!recognition!of!visual!target!words!identical! to!the!head!of!the!scrambled!noun!phrase!was!indeed!facilitated!at!preverbal! gap! positions! compared! to! earlier! (pre=gap)! control! positions,! and! also! compared!to!the!recognition!of!unrelated!words!(see!Figure!1!below).!! ! ! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 8! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! Figure-1.!Mean!lexical!decision!times!(in!ms)!for!unrelated!and!identical!targets!at!pre=gap!and! gap!test!points,!for!the!high!working!memory!participants!in!Nakano!et!al.'ʹs!(2002)!study.- ! This!indicates!that!the!scrambled!object!was!mentally!reactivated!at!its! canonical!structural!position,!i.e.!at!the!offset!of!the!dative!NP!onna>no-hito>ni- ‘female!person’!in!example!(2)!above,!and!before!participants!had!the!chance!to! fully! process! the! clause=final! subcategorising! verb.! The! observed! position= specific! reactivation! effect! was! restricted! to! participants! who! had! scored! relatively! highly! in! an! independently! administered! working! memory! test,! however.!Nakano!et!al.!speculate!that!this!might!have!been!due!to!the!stimulus! sentences'ʹ! unusually! high! degree! of! structural! complexity! and! the! relatively! high! task! demands,! which! may! have! prevented! participants! with! a! reduced! working!memory!capacity!from!successfully!recovering!the!fronted!constituent! at!its!canonical!position.!! Note,! however,! that! the! above! finding! does! not! by! itself! provide! unequivocal!evidence!for!preverbal!structural!gaps,!or!support!for!movement! accounts.! It! is! conceivable! that! all! of! the! verb'ʹs! arguments! are! routinely! reactivated!when!the!subcategorizing!verb!is!processed!(or!possibly!even!before,! if!the!verb!can!be!anticipated),!as!predicted!by!the!direct!association!hypothesis,! which!would!be!a!lexically,!rather!than!a!structurally,!driven!effect!and!also!be! consistent!with!non=configurational!or!flat!structure!accounts.!To!test!whether! preverbal! antecedent! priming! effects! are! also! observed! for! distant! but! non= scrambled!arguments,!Nakano!et!al.!carried!out!a!further!cross=modal!priming! experiment!to!see!whether!subject!arguments!are!mentally!reactivated!as!well.! The!materials!included!canonically!ordered!sentences!like!(3)!below,!in!which! 570$ 580$ 590$ 600$ 610$ 620$ 630$ 640$ 650$ Pre/gap$ Gap$ Unrelated$ Iden:cal$ ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 9! Claudia!Felser! ! the!nominative=marked!subject!NP!ooji>ga-'ʹprince'ʹ!was!separated!from!the!verb! by!two!intervening!argument!phrases.!! (3)-Homon=saki=no!byoin=de,!ooji=ga!!kodomotachi=ni!! !! visit=place=GEN!hospital=in!prince=NOM!children=DAT!! !! omocha=o! #!age=ta! !! toy=ACC!! ! give=PAST! !‘In!the!hospital!he!visited,!the!prince!gave!the!children!some!toys.’! The!results!showed!no!evidence!of!the!subject!being!reactivated!at!the! preverbal!test!point!(marked!#).!The!lack!of!reactivation!effects!in!Nakano!et! al.'ʹs! second! experiment! is! surprising! from! the! point! of! view! of! the! direct! association!hypothesis,!which!predicts!reactivation!of!all!the!verb'ʹs!arguments! when! the! verb! is! encountered,! rather! than! the! selective! reactivation! of! syntactically!displaced!ones.!Instead,!this!finding!is!what!we!would!expect!from! the! point! of! view! of! configurational! accounts,! according! to! which! the! word! order!in!(3)!corresponds!to!the!order!in!which!the!three!argument!phrases!were! originally!merged,!and!under!the!assumption!that!Japanese!VPs!are!head=final.!! Together,! the! two! cross=modal! priming! experiments! described! above! lend! support! to! movement=based! approaches! to! scrambling! and! to! configurational!accounts!of!Japanese!verb!phrases,!and!are!difficult!to!reconcile! with! non=configurational! or! lexicalist! accounts! (compare! also! Clahsen! &! Featherston! 1999,! for! German).! Note,! however,! that! Nakano! et! al.'ʹs! (2002)! results! are! unable! to! differentiate! between,! for! example,! leftward! movement! and! lowering! accounts,! as! both! of! these! would! predict! position=specific,! preverbal!antecedent!reactivation!effects.!! 3.!Study!2:!Processing!reflexes!of!cyclic!movement! Our!second!example!also!looks!at!operator!movement!across!more!than! one!sentence!boundary,!but!this!time!focussing!on!intermediate!structural!gaps.! Transformational! accounts! of! wh=movement! have! usually! assumed! that! 'ʹunbounded'ʹ!movement!must!proceed!successive=cyclically!(Chomsky!1973,!and! later).!In!a!multi=clausal!sentence!such!as!(4)!below,!for!example,!the!relative! pronoun! who! (coreferent! with! the! matrix! subject! thetourist)! is! thought! to! originate!as!the!object!of!the!most!deeply!embedded!verb,!angered.!Rather!than! being! shifted! to! its! surface! position! in! a! single! step,! however,! fronted! wh> elements!are!assumed!to!make!intermediate!stops!before!crossing!certain!types! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 16! Language!Processing!Evidence!for!Linguistic!Structure! Instead,! Batterham'ʹs! results! support! theoretical! accounts! that! maintain! there! is! a! difference! in! syntactic! complexity! between! control! and! raising! sentences.!The!observed!reading=time!pattern!is!expected!under!the!assumption! that!encountering! a!raising!verb!triggers!the!search!for! a!subject!gap! further! downstream,!and!the!need!to!carry!the!(as!yet!theta=less)!matrix!subject!forward! during! the! processing! of! intervening! sentence! material.! This! incurs! a! measurable!processing!cost!compared!to!sentences!that!contain!a!control!verb,! whose!subject!can!be!theta=marked!locally!and!thus!does!not!need!to!be!carried! forward.!! In! short,! Batterham'ʹs! (2009)! results! support! theoretical! accounts! according! to! which! subject! raising! and! control! sentences! differ! in! their! derivational! history,! with! the! derivation! of! raising! sentences! being! computationally! more! complex! than! the! derivation! of! control! sentences! (compare!e.g.!Chomsky!1981).!They!are!also!in!line!with!the!results!of!an!earlier! German!study!by!Featherston,!Gross,!Münte!&!Clahsen!(2000)!which!employed! event=related!brain!potentials.!Featherston!et!al.!found!evidence!for!increased! processing!difficulty!for!raising!compared!to!control!sentences!at!the!beginning! of!the!infinitival!region,!which!they!suggested!reflected!the!greater!processing! difficulty!associated!with!'ʹundoing'ʹ!syntactic!movement!in!the!case!of!subject! raising!sentences.!Note!once!again,!however,!that!although! the!above!results! support! theoretical! accounts! that! syntactically! distinguish! between! subject! control! and! subject! raising,! they! are! not! by! themselves! able! to! differentiate! between! different! possible! formalisations! of! any! such! syntactic! complexity! differences.!! 5.!Concluding!remarks!! The!three!examples!presented!above!showed!how!real=time!processing! data! can! help! reveal! subtle! details! of! abstract! linguistic! structure.! Study! 1! provided!evidence!for!the!configurational!structure!of!VP!in!Japanese,!study!2! for!the!presence!of!intermediate!syntactic!structure!in!long!wh=dependencies!in! English,! and! study! 3! for! the! greater! syntactic! or! derivational! complexity! of! raising!compared!to!control!sentences.!Other!sentence!types!whose!derivation! has! been! investigated! experimentally! include! interalia- sentences! containing! unaccusatives! (Friedmann,! Taranto,! Shapiro! &! Swinney! 2008),! topicalisations! ! ©!Iberia:!An!International!Journal!of!Theoretical!Linguistics!vol!4.2,!2012,!1=22! ! ! http://revistas.ojs.es/index.php/iberia!ISSN!1989=8525! 17! Claudia!Felser! ! (Bader!and!Frazier!2005;!Felser,!Clahsen!&!Münte!2003),!heavy!NP!shift!(Staub,! Clifton!&!Frazier!2006),!subject!movement!(Koizumi!&!Tamaoka!2010)!or!verb! movement!(De!Goede!2006).!Processing!experiments!have,!moreover,!provided! evidence!for!the!'ʹmental!reality'ʹ!of!abstract!linguistic!elements!such!as!implicit! arguments! (Mauner,! Tanenhaus! &! Carlson! 1995)! or! parasitic! gaps! (Phillips! 2006),! and! have! also! provided! novel! perspectives! on! the! nature! of! island! constraints!(e.g.!Kluender!1998,!Wagers!&!Phillips!2009,!Hofmeister!&!Sag!2010)! and!constraints!on!anaphoric!binding!(Koornneef,!Avrutin,!Wijnen!&!Reuland! 2011).! While! it! is! of! course! unrealistic! to! expect! every! theoretician! to! start! carrying! out! processing! experiments,! the! selective! research! review! presented! above!is!intended!to!encourage!theoretical!linguists!to!pay!more!attention!to! what!goes!on!in!language!processing!research!and!to!acknowledge!the!potential! usefulness! of! real=time! processing! data! for! linguistic! theory! building! and! evaluation.!! 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