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...

In behavioral studies on sentence comprehension, much evidence indicates that shorter dependencies are preferred over longer dependencies, and that longer dependencies incur a greater processing cost. However, it remains uncertain which of the various steps involved in the processing of long-distance dependencies is responsible for the increased cost of longer dependencies. Previous sentence co...

Prior studies on online sentence processing have shown that the parser can resolve non-local dependencies rapidly and accurately. This study investigates the interaction between the processing of two such non-local dependencies: wh-filler-gap dependencies (WhFGD) and reflexive-antecedent dependencies. We show that reflexive-antecedent dependency resolution is sensitive to the presence of a WhFG...

One of the most pervasive properties of human language is the existence of dependencies: necessary relationships that hold between two elements in a sentence. The primary objects of study in this volume are long-distance “fillergap” dependencies – a special subset of dependencies that are not constrained by standard measures of length such as number of words or number of clauses. For example, w...

In wh-questions that form a syntactic dependency between the fronted wh-phrase and its thematic position, acceptability is severely degraded when the dependency crosses another wh-phrase. It is well known that the acceptability degradation in wh-island violation ameliorates in certain contexts, but the source of this variation remains poorly understood. In the syntax literature, an influential ...

The processing of Japanese wh-questions was investigated using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Unlike in English or German, a wh-element in Japanese need not be displaced from its canonical position, but instead needs a corresponding Q(uestion)-particle to indicate its interrogative scope. We tested to see if there were any processing correlates specific to these features of Japanese wh-...

Children are known to have problems in understanding Wh-movement constructions in which the object moves across an overt subject (as is the case in object-relatives, Wh-object questions, and topicalization). To test whether crossing dependencies are also problematic when no Wh-movement is involved and whether dependencies in which the subject crosses an object are also difficult, we test a cons...