SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS IN SENTENCE COMPREHENSION - EFFECTS OF DEPENDENCY TYPES AND GRAMMATICAL CONSTRAINTS

This paper presents three experiments on the parsing of Italian wh-que stions that manipulate the wh-type (who vs. which-N) and the wh extrac tion site (main clause, dependent clause with or without complementize r). The aim of these manipulations is to see whether the parser is sen sitive to the type of dependencies being processed and whether the pro cessing effects can be explained by a unique processing principle, the minimal chain principle (MCP; De Vincenzi, 1991). The results show th at the parser, following the MCP, prefers structures with fewer and le ss complex chains. In particular: (1) There is a processing advantage for the wh-subject extractions, the structures with less complex chain s; (2) there is a processing dissociation between the who and which qu estions; (3) the parser respects the principle that governs the well-f ormedness of the empty categories (ECP).