On the processing of object relative clauses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2019/10/0014/000376Keywords:
relative clauses, featural intervention, interferenceAbstract
This study investigates the effect of featural mismatch in the processing of object relative clauses (ORCs). A self-paced reading experiment is reported in which the matching of formal and semantic number features of the head noun and the relative clause (RC) subject is manipulated. While the predicted full mismatching intervention/interference effect was not obtained, collective nouns gave rise to the shortest reading times in both the subject and the RC verb regions. A follow-up suggests that it is subject-verb agreement in both the RC and the main clause that is vulnerable to semantic interference.
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