Abstract
In this paper, I would like to sketch one approach to so-called principle-based parsing and how it might begin to provide a unified account of two apparently rather disparate phenomena: garden path effects and island violations. All syntax-based approaches to language processing which attempt to be psychologically plausible must address two conceptually independent questions concerning the operation of the human language processor;
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(a)
How is it that humans are able to (rapidly and automatically) assign grammatically licit structure to incoming strings of words?
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(b)
What is the relationship between the parser and the grammar which makes this possible?
I would like to thank John Whitman and participants at the Ottawa Psycholinguistics of Island Constraints Conference for useful comments.
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Pritchett, B.L. (1992). Parsing with Grammar: Islands, Heads, and Garden Paths. In: Goodluck, H., Rochemont, M. (eds) Island Constraints. Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1980-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1980-3_12
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