The Minimal Chain Principle and Parsing Korean

Abstract

De Vincenzi's (1991, 2000) Minimal Chain Principle (MCP) is a good example of economy in parsing. It combines Superstrategy and the Active Filler Hypothesis (AFH). In this paper, the Korean data involving topicalized phrases and (scrambled) dative noun phrases are tested to examine the validity of the MCP. The processing difficulty observed from topicalized complements suggests that the parser considers syntactic movement as a last resort The preferred readings in the sentences containing scrambled dative phrases also suggest that the parser prefers a singleton chain. Meanwhile, if there is evidence for the existence of a chain, the parser completes chain computation as soon as possible. Altogether, the core data from Korean can be well explained by the MCP.