The Influence of Case and Word Order in Child and Adult Processing of Relative Clauses in Greek

Previous cross-linguistic studies have shown that object relative clauses (ORCs) are typically harder to parse than subject (SRCs). The cause of difficulty, however, is still under debate, both in the adult and developmental literature. present study investigates on-line processing SRCs ORCs Greek-speaking 11- 12-year-old children adults, provides evidence on clause Greek—a free word order language. We conducted a self-paced listening task which we manipulated type (SRC vs. ORC), RC internal (canonical scrambled), relativizer (relative pronoun complementizer). results showed were overall processed faster ORCs, providing follow similar strategies adults. In addition, accusative case marking facilitated non-canonical structures adults but less so children. Children heavy reliance order, as they nominative pre-verbal NPs exactly same way, while strongly garden-pathed with post-verbal NPs. argue these compatible Competition Model.