Processing empty subjects in Japanese: Implications for the transparency hypothesis.
Item
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Title
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Processing empty subjects in Japanese: Implications for the transparency hypothesis.
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Identifier
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AAI9207119
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identifier
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9207119
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Creator
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Sakamoto, Tsutomu.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Janet Dean Fodor
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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This thesis concerns how "transparent" the relation is between the parser and the grammar with respect to filler-gap associations. Some previous research has argued for non-transparency, but this would be an unwelcome finding which should not be accepted without further investigation. If non-transparency is correct, it would invalidate a whole line of psycholinguistic research in which the representations assigned to sentences by the parser are taken as revealing the representations assigned to sentences by the mental grammar.;Transparency is not necessarily threatened by processing strategies which are applied when the input is ambiguous and the grammar provides no relevant information. However, a processing strategy which denies available grammatical information is non-transparent. It has been proposed by some researchers that the processor for English does not accept an empty category as the filler (controller) for another empty category (the Lexical Filler Only hypothesis, or LFO). Since the grammar of English does permit empty category fillers, LFO would be a non-transparent strategy.;LFO is not supported by the experiments reported here on gap-filling in control constructions in Japanese. Because Japanese is a verb-final language, an empty subject in a subordinate clause will be encountered by the processor before it encounters a verb which carries information that determines the controller of the empty category. The experimental results on Japanese processing reported here show a constant preference for object control in both the Subject-Object word order, and the Object-Subject word order. On the standard assumption that scrambling of word order leaves a trace, this consistency of object controller preference suggests that the trace is recognized by the processor as a legitimate controller.;Alternative explanations are considered (e.g. a preference for GOAL controllers), but these also are compatible with the transparency hypothesis. The findings for English can also be explained on the assumption of transparency, and universal processing strategies.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
