Processing flexible argument structure in Dutch, German, and English

Abstract

Permissive subjects, which are non-agentive subjects combined with action verbs in the active form (e.g., ‘A few years ago a penny would buy you two or three pins’; ‘The tent sleeps four people’), are hardly found in German compared to English. For this contrast, previous research offers an explanation related to processing constraints, proposing that distinct processing strategies account for varying efficiency of processing permissive subjects. The differences in processing strategies are said to correlate with basic typological properties, specifically basic word order. In order to demonstrate cross-linguistic differences in the processing of permissive subjects, we conducted an experiment where native speakers of English, Dutch, and German performed a self-paced reading task. Based on the results, we argue that fundamental differences in processing strategies are present in English and Dutch on the one hand (look ahead parsing) and German on the other (look back parsing). However, our findings challenge the claim that different processing strategies are directly related to contrasts in the basic position of the verb. It is likely that also other contrasts in basic language properties could influence processing permissive subjects, most likely case.