Maximizing Processing in an Sov Language

Head-driven parser models predict that SOV languages are harder to process than SVO languages, since the parser has to hold both S and O until it reaches V, instead of just S as in an SVO language. However, since no reading time differences have been attested between SOV and SVO languages, we hypothesize that either these models are wrong or SOV languages have strategies to compensate for the late appearance of the verb. The results presented in this paper indicate that SOV languages such as Japanese do use compensatory strategies to reduce the distance before the verbal head. First, a language may use a higher percentage of one-place predicates, thus minimizing the number of structural arguments; second, it may minimize the number of overtly expressed preverbal arguments (regardless of the adicity of the predicate). While the former strategy seems specific to OV languages, the latter strategy, manifested as a higher incidence of subject pro-drop with two-place predicates, is found in a number of languages, regardless of word order and verb agreement, which suggests more a universal processing constraint than a compensatory strategy for head-final languages.