Processing Asymmetries of Subject and Object pro in Korean

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that object relative clauses incur a heavier processing load than subject relative clauses. The processing advantage of subject relative clauses has been taken to support various processing accounts based on memory resources (Gibson, 1998; Lewis & Vasishth 2005) or linguistic analyses (OGrady, 1997; Keenan & Comrie, 1977). In this paper, we aim to test these accounts using the construction that has not been previously examined, namely the noun complement construction with subject and object pro (~the fact that __pro threatened the editor vs. ~the fact the editor threatened __pro). Self-paced reading results showed that the processing advantage of subject gap was also found for the noun complement construction with pro. The results are taken to support processing accounts based on linguistic analyses (OGrady 1997; Keenan & Comrie 1977).