Relative Clause Processing: Evidence from Russian
Abstract
Studies on relative clauses (RCs) in a number of languages have shown that object-extracted RCs (ORCs) are more difficult to process than subject-extracted RCs (SRCs). SRC-ORC processing asymmetry has been attributed to:
• Structural expectations (Levy, 2008)
• Memory-based integration effects (Gibson, 2000)
• RC subject vs. object extraction difficulty differences (Lin & Bever, 2006)
In many languages, word order differences between SRCs and ORCs make it difficult to test among these accounts. Russian allows SRCs and ORCs to have the same linear word order (with case-marking distinguishing between the RC types).