We provide a new definition of the linear prominence constraints between pronouns and operators (wh-words and quantifiers) which correctly rules out examples that violate weak crossover. Previous analyses of weak crossover relied on the presence of a trace in the extraction site of a wh-question; in contrast, our analysis enables a traceless account of examples previously cited in support of tr...

This paper tests claims that children with Grammatical(G)-SLI are impaired in hierarchical structural dependencies at the clause level and in whatever underlies such dependencies with respect to movement, chain formation and feature checking; that is, their impairment lies in the syntactic computational system itself (the Computational Grammatical Complexity hypothesis proposed by van der Lely ...

We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during the processing of unambiguous German sentences containing different types of filler-gap dependency. Both topicalization constructions and wh-questions were found to elicit a left-anterior negativity (LAN) prior to the processing of the subcategorizing verb, relative to a gap-free control condition. At the subcategorizing verb, sentences c...

There is a debate as to whether second language (L2) learners show qualitatively similar processing profiles as native speakers or whether L2 learners are restricted in their ability to use syntactic information during online processing. In the realm of wh-dependency resolution, research has examined whether learners, similar to native speakers, attempt to resolve wh-dependencies in grammatical...

A well-documented asymmetry in children’s acquisition of A-bar movement constructions is that movement of objects is more difficult than movement of subjects. This asymmetry has been most frequently observed with relative clauses (de Villiers et al. 1979, Correa 1995, Friedmann and Novogrodski 2004, Adani 2011, Guasti et al. 2012, a.o), but has also been reported, to a lesser extent, with wh-qu...

This paper reports a series of formal acceptability-judgment experiments designed to investigate the syntactic properties of a relatively understudied type of wh-dependency: multiple wh-questions in English. By using a factorial definition of island effects made available only by formal experiments, we report an unpredicted pattern of acceptability that suggests the existence of reverse island ...

Wh-dependencies are known to be formed rapidly in real-time comprehension. The parser posits the location of gap sites in advance of the bottom-up evidence for missing constituents, and must therefore have a means of deciding when and where to project dependencies. Previous studies have observed that the parser avoids building ungrammatical wh-dependencies, for example, by restricting the searc...

To be able to reach the level of ultimate attainment in the second language, learners need to acquire not only the grammar of the L2 but also the language processing mechanisms involved in the comprehension of sentences in real time. Contrary to its importance, very little is known yet about online L2 processing. This study examines whether advanced Iranian learners of English reactivate disloc...