Comp-trace effects: a comparative and psycholinguistic approach

这个项目研究的是所谓的COMP-TRACE效应。这指的是，在英语和其他几种语言中，当补足语(例如，如果、是否)紧接在空的主语位置之前时，它不能拼写出来。其中，当主语是一个位于结构更高的从句前面的疑问词时，这种情况就会发生：[你认为谁[那个遇到了汤姆]=不符合语法，[你认为[谁遇到了汤姆]=语法。COMP-TRACE效应被认为是一种普遍的效应，但声称在德国和荷兰没有。此外，到目前为止，还没有对COMP-TRACE效应给出令人满意的、跨语言的解释。有证据表明，COMP-TRACE效应不是单一因素(无论是句法还是非句法)的结果，而是多个因素共同作用的结果，其中一些因素与加工有关。这个项目的目标是找出导致COMP-TRACE效应的因素，从而对这种效应进行结论性的分析。这将通过比较密切相关的德语、英语和荷兰语来实现。一个将被研究的假设是，德国和荷兰也表现出了比较跟踪效应，尽管形式较温和。第二个要检验的假设是，比较追踪效应的强度取决于加工相关因素，而加工相关因素又取决于类型学属性，特别是格标记法和词序。这些假设将通过将实验收集的定量判断数据与在线和离线处理措施结合起来进行研究，特别是阅读时间和理解数据。关于英语，将检验一个新的假设，即在诸如你认为谁[遇到了汤姆]这样的问题中嵌入的从句是一种伪关系从句，其中疑问词(谁)是中心。这一分析的预测之一是，在假设它是一个矩阵从句论元的情况下，疑问词应该能够以谁的身份浮出水面。这一点将通过语法判断任务和产出任务进行测试。

This project investigates the so-called COMP-trace effect. This refers to the fact that in English and several other languages, a complementizer (e.g. that, if, whether) cannot be spelled out when it immediately precedes an empty subject position. This happens, amongst others, when the subject is a question word which is fronted to a structurally higher clause: [Who do you think [that met Tom]] = ungrammatical, [Who do you think [met Tom] = grammatical. The COMP-trace effect is considered to be a universal effect, but has claimed to be absent in German and Dutch. Furthermore, up to this date, no satisfactory, crosslinguistic explanation for the COMP-trace effect has been given. There is evidence that the COMP-trace effect is not the result of a single factor (be it syntactic or non-syntactic), but of an accumulation of several factors, some of which are processing-related. The goal of this project is to uncover the factors that contribute to the COMP-trace effect, leading to a conclusive analysis of this effect. This will be done by comparing the closely related languages German, English and Dutch. One hypothesis that will be investigated is that German and Dutch show a COMP-trace effect as well, albeit in a milder form. A second hypothesis that will be tested is that the strength of the COMP-trace effect is dependent on processing-related factors, which in turn are dependent on typological properties, in particular case-marking and word order. These hypotheses will be investigated by combining experimentally gathered quantitative judgement data with online and offline processing measures, specifically reading time and comprehension data. With regards to English, a novel hypothesis will be tested, namely that the embedded clauses in questions like Who do you think [met Tom] is a type of pseudo-relative clause, of which the question word (who) is the head. One of the predictions of this analysis is that the question word should be able to surface as whom, under the assumption that it is a matrix clause argument. This will be tested by means of a grammaticality judgement task and a production task.