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Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Linguistics
Year Degree Awarded
2017
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Brian Dillon
Second Advisor
Lyn Frazier
Third Advisor
Kyle Johnson
Fourth Advisor
Adrian Staub
Subject Categories
Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics | Syntax
Abstract
It has been claimed that comprehenders use the Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1986) to restrict the search for a reflexive’s antecedent in early stages of comprehension (Dillon, Mishler, Sloggett, & Phillips, 2013; Sturt, 2003; Nicol & Swinney, 1989) However, recent findings challenge this view, demonstrating that comprehenders occasionally access antecedents on the basis of their match with a reflexive’s morphosyntactic features (Chen, Jäger, & Vasishth, 2012; Patil, Lewis, & Vasishth, 2016, Parker, & Phillips, 2017). In this dissertation, I investigate the source of this ’grammatical fallibility’ in the real-time application of Principle A of the Binding Theory. Specifically, I ask whether this pattern of behavior is the direct consequence of an error-prone retrieval mechanism, or if it is instead the result of a discourse-oriented, logophoric interpretation of reflexive forms. This work presents four experiments demonstrating that comprehenders only consider non-Principle A antecedents which act as prominent perspective holders in the discourse. I explain these findings by appealing to local, logophoric center available for reflexive reference.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/10694098.0
Recommended Citation
Sloggett, Shayne, "When errors aren't: How comprehenders selectively violate Binding Theory" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 1125.
https://doi.org/10.7275/10694098.0
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1125