Abstract
Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures.
Highlights
Some sentences are more difficult to process than other sentences, and some sentences are so complex that they exceed the processing capacity of the human parser and thereby lead to processing overload
Though the observed missing-verb phrase (VP) effects were somewhat weaker in the current experiment than in the corresponding speeded grammaticality judgment experiment from Bader et al (2003), the questionnaire results closely replicate the pattern from the speeded grammaticality judgments study
The finding that the other missing-VP sentences are accepted as grammatical to a substantial degree despite the lack of time constraints corroborates the existence of the missing-VP effect in German
Summary
Some sentences are more difficult to process than other sentences, and some sentences are so complex that they exceed the processing capacity of the human parser and thereby lead to processing overload. A striking illustration of the parser’s limited capacity is provided by sentences with multiple center-embedding as illustrated by the example in (1) from Frazier (1985). Sentences with multiple center-embedding have long been known to be difficult to process (Chomsky and Miller, 1963; Miller and Chomsky, 1963; Miller and Isard, 1964; Bever, 1970; Kimball, 1973, e.g.,). Sentences with two degrees of centerembedding can still be comprehended under certain conditions, as demonstrated by the following sentence from Bever (1974), in which the subject of the most deeply embedded relative clause is a first-person pronoun and not a lexical NP. (2) The reporter who everyone that I met trusts said the president won’t resign yet. With two levels of center-embedding, the maximum degree of center-embedding is already reached, and sentences with three or more degrees of centerembedding seem to be beyond the capacity of human parsing and human sentence production
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