Island Constraint and Reanalysis in Mandarin Topic Structure
I am collaborating with Renee Dong and Chao Han on an ERP study of Chinese filler-gap dependencies. There is some debate in the literature as to whether Mandarin topic constructions are movement-derived or base-generated (Huang, Li, & Li, 2009). This study uses the filler-gap paradigm of Traxler & Pickering (1996) to record ERPs in Mandarin filler-gap topic constructions. We use manipulate the plausibility of the filler and the presence or absence of syntactic islands. We predicted an N400 at the critical verb in the non-island conditions, as well as an ELAN/P600 complex at the actual object. We find no N400, but we do see anterior negativity at the verb and a P600 at the object in non-island relative to island conditions. We interpret the P600 to indicate active gap-filling and reanalysis in these constructions.
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| Non-Island | Island |
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| RESEARCH |