Grammatical licensing and relative clause parsing in a flexible word-order language

• Published in: Cognition Vol. 178; pp. 207 - 221
• Main Authors: Wagers, Matthew W., Borja, Manuel F., Chung, Sandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.09.2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Austronesian; Chamorro; Cognitive ability; Cognitive science; Comprehension; Grammar; Language; Licensing; Linguistics; Parsing; Relative clauses; Subject preference; Word order; Chamorro; Austronesian; Subject preference; Word order; Parsing; Relative clauses

Evidence from two experiments reveals that in Chamorro, a verb-first language, the comprehension of relative clauses (RCs) is sensitive to the order of the RC with respect to the head. Unlike most other languages, Chamorro allows both postnominal and prenominal RCs, so it is possible to compare how...