Integrating the filler : evidence from double object constructions in Greek relative clauses

Abstract

This study investigates filler integration by adult native speakers of Greek. Object Relative Clauses (RCs) including ditransitives were tested in order to address (a) whether Greek adults show reactivation of the filler at the gap, and (b) the psychological reality of two theoretical analyses of ditransitives in Greek. The first analysis proposes that the base-generated order is direct object (DO) - indirect object (IO) (Anagnostopoulou 2005). To test that, IO RCs were used where the ΙΟ is the filler and it is c-commanded by the DO at its initial position; hence its trace is immediately after the DO. The second analysis proposes that the basic word order is IODO (Georgala 2012; Anagnostopoulou 2005). To test that, DO RCs were used where the DO is the filler and it is c-commanded by the IO at its initial position; hence its trace is immediately after the IO. Alternatively, both orders can be base-generated (Anagnostopoulou 2005) and no reactivation effects are expected. The Trace Reactivation Hypothesis (TRH) predicts reactivation of the filler at the trace position. Due to reactivation effects, facilitation (shorter reaction times) is expected in that position. We employed Cross-Modal Priming (CMP) (Swinney, Onifer, Prather & Hirshkowitz 1979) and Probe-Classification During Reading aloud (Dekydtspotter, Miller, Schaefer, Yang & Kim 2010) tasks. Trace reactivation effects confirm the TRH only in the CMP and only when adopting the IO-DO order as basic.