Gone with a trace?
Reactivation at PRO positions
PRO is a theoretically attractive empty category proposed to fill the subject position in non-finite clauses. This chapter is concerned with the empirical evidence for PRO. We investigate reactivation patterns in Control sentences in Norwegian with data from two reaction time experiments. We use a picture recognition task to measure the time and position of PRO antecedent reactivation during sentence processing. The data analysis explores a baseline that has the ability to separate syntactic priming (correct PRO antecedent reactivation) and repetition priming. We find a significant effect of position and an effect of syntactic priming for Subject Control using mixed effects models. We discuss possible theoretical implications and necessary future research.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Control sentences
- 1.1.1Subject Control
- 1.1.2Object Control
- 1.2Raising sentences
- 1.2.1Subject-to-Subject raising
- 1.2.2Subject-to-Object raising
- 1.3Our objective
- 2.The current study
- 2.1Objective and hypothesis: Pilot experiment
- 2.1.1Rationale
- 2.1.2Participants
- 2.1.3Materials
- 2.1.4Procedure
- 2.1.5Results
- 2.1.6Summary pilot study
- 2.2Objective and hypotheses: Main experiment
- 2.2.1Rationale
- 2.2.2Participants
- 2.2.3Materials
- 2.2.4Procedure
- 2.2.5Results
- 3.Discussion
- 3.1Pilot experiment
- 3.2Main Experiment
- 3.2.1Subject Control
- 3.2.2Object Control
- 3.2.3Interpretation Subject Control and Object Control
- 4.Conclusions
-
Acknowledgement
-
References
-
Appendix
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