LIBC

Projects

1. The processing of syntactic dependencies (with Jenny Doetjes and Leticia Pablos)

We investigate the active search mechanism outside of typical wh-filler dependencies. In particular, we investigate the processing of cataphoric pronouns, and the processing of negative polarity items. Our results show that in both cases, the active search mechanism is activated as soon as the dependent element is encountered.
In the case of cataphoric pronouns, the parser tries to establish a link with an antecedent which does not yield Principle C violation of the binding theory. And when the first available antecedent does not match the pronoun in terms of gender features, we get gender mismatch effects (a sustained negativity in EEG data). Similarly, in the case of negative polarity items, after encountering a negative polarity item, the parser looks for negation and our EEG data again show sustained negativity.

2. Understanding questions

In English, an interrogative phrase (or wh-phrase) has to be fronted in order to form a question (What did he ask?). In other languages, the wh-phrase remains ‘in situ’, that is, in its original position (cf. French Il a demandé quoi? lit. ‘He asked what?’, meaning ‘What did he ask?’). Non-fronted questions have been addressed in the literature from various angles, but no consensus has been reached on their status, nor on the question why in some languages non-fronting is optional while in others it is the only possibility. This project aims at answering these questions.
This project proposes an integrated and comparative study on the syntactic, semantic, prosodic and processing aspects of non-fronted wh-questions. We focus on Mandarin and French, because these two languages feature two different types of in-situ wh-questions, as well as a fronted option. Though the basic syntactic and semantic properties of wh-questions in these languages are relatively well studied, there is no consensus on certain crucial data. Furthermore, the prosodic and processing aspects will help us understand the essence of the differences between fronted and non-fronted wh-questions.

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