By Nayoun Kim 2019
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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Hold, Release, and Retrieve: The Study of Wh-Filler-Gap Dependencies and Ellipsis A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Linguistics By Nayoun Kim EVANSTON, ILLINOIS September 2019 2 © Copyright by Nayoun Kim 2019 All Rights Reserved 3 Abstract This dissertation is concerned with how components in memory structures and online structure building processes interact by investigating the online processing of Wh-Filler-Gap Dependencies (WhFGD) and ellipsis constructions. Resolving long-distance dependencies involves linking the dependent element to the controlling element. In the case of Wh-gap dependency formation, the wh-element is linked to the gap. In the case of ellipsis resolution, the ellipsis site is linked to the antecedent. In the processing of long-distance dependency resolution, I point out that two component processes are involved: the storage/maintenance component and the retrieval component. A series of studies on WhFGD formation reveal that the sentence processing mechanism involves the maintenance component on top of the retrieval component. Studies on ellipsis constructions further reveal that when the antecedent is retrieved, detailed grammatical structural information should be retrieved, thus grammatical and structural information must be encoded in memory. Based on the results of these studies, I specifically argue for the following points: (i) the filler is released from memory, depending on the grammatical requirement of the filler; (ii) given that information associated with the filler being retrieved reflects the extent to which the filler is maintained, the parser retrieves grammatical information associated with the wh- filler; and (iii) the parser is sensitive to grammatical distinctions at the ellipsis site in contrast to the processing of Anaphoric one and Pronoun it. These studies provide evidence that both the maintenance and retrieval process are heavily constrained by grammatical information associated with the elements that engage in dependency formation. 4 Acknowledgment My deepest gratitude goes to my advisor, Masaya Yoshida, and members of my committee: Laurel Brehm, Matt Goldrick, Colin Phillips, and Alexis Wellwood. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Masaya Yoshida. Working with him has truly been an amazing experience in my life. He helped spark my interest in carrying out research at the intersection of psycholinguistics and syntax. Honestly speaking, there were times that I could not understand some of his random comments immediately, which only later returned as an ‘aha (This is exciting! Did Masaya already knew this long before, while I was still focusing on the trees?)-moment’. Looking back, I am deeply grateful that he provided me with opportunities to explore and discover every direction by myself (although he was guiding me at every stage unnoticed). I appreciate his generous insightful comments on my half-baked ideas and analyses, while also valuing his desire for clearer and more cogent argumentation. His demands for precision have helped me investigate core interesting problems in my research. Thank you for supporting me in pursuing my passion and constantly reminding me to never be afraid of being wrong. It has been an honor for me to have you as my advisor and mentor in my life. I would like to thank Laurel Brehm, Matt Goldrick, Colin Phillips, and Alexis Wellwood for serving on my committee and providing unwavering support and guidance. I would like to thank Laurel Brehm for guiding me in uncovering the underlying mechanisms behind statistics and data analyses, and for being a model of balancing professionalism with optimism and enthusiasm. Working with her has allowed me to view data from different perspectives in psycholinguistics and to become a more thorough psycholinguist. I thank Matt Goldrick for his 5 unwavering support and encouragement, and for being a constant source of inspiration on critical and clear thinking and comprehensive data analyses. I am also thankful for his role as a chair in the Linguistics department for making such a stimulating and ideal environment to work on psycholinguistics. I would like to thank Colin Phillips who has contributed significantly to my research from the beginning of my career. He has played an unquestionable role in shaping my ideas about psycholinguistics, and this dissertation is largely inspired by his research. I am grateful for his encouragement and support as well as for pushing me to articulate and pursue exciting ideas. Alexis Wellwood has constantly asked fundamental and deep questions about my research at every stage of my graduate career. I am grateful for her generosity in time and support during her time at Northwestern, and for her influence on the ways in which I approach problems in cognitive science. This dissertation has greatly profited from the guidance of other linguists outside Northwestern University. I would like to particularly thank Patrick Sturt, for his thoughtful and illuminating comments. His work on the intersection between syntax and psycholinguistics has inspired me tremendously, instilling in me a profound respect for combining theoretical works with rigorous experimental works. I would like to also thank Matt Wagers for reading substantial chapters of my dissertation and for his insightful comments, and for allowing me to formulate many of my research ideas. I would also like to thank Julie Van Dyke, who provided invaluable comments and support on my works. Over the course of the dissertation projects, parts of this dissertation were presented and discussed in various venues. I would like to thank audiences at Center for Research in Language, Haskins Laboratories, Illinois Language and Literacy Initiative group at the Beckman Institute, 6 Syntax, Semantics, and Sentence Processing Lab and Aphasia and Neurolinguistics Lab at Northwestern for their lively discussions and helpful comments. I am also grateful to Keir Moulton and Daphna Heller for their belief in my potential; I am very excited for the next stage of my research career working with you two. I would like to thank my teachers at Northwestern Linguistics Department. In particular, I would like to thank Ann Bradlow, Brady Clark, Jennifer Cole, Erin Leddon, Janet Pierrehumbert, and Gregory Ward, for enriching my ideas in linguistics through stimulating conversations and discussions. Janet Pierrehumbert deserves my special thanks. She was generous with her time and insights where I was able to synthesize and refine my research interests and ideas in my early years at Northwestern. I was able to rely on her unwavering support even after she left to Oxford. I am also grateful to Cindy Thompson, who provided me with invaluable opportunities to work on projects in neurolinguistics, using different neuroscientific methods to illuminate syntax in our brain. I would also like to thank Robin Nusslock, professor in Psychology, whose office was right across my office in Swift Hall. He provided constant academic advice and encouragement in my graduate career, instilling me with determinism and enthusiasm. I am thankful for my wonderful colleagues in Syntax, Semantics, and Sentence Processing Lab. I particularly thank Kathleen Hall, Shayne Sloggett, Ethan Myers, Wes Orth, Peter Baumann, and Mike Frazier for their stimulating discussions and comments on my works. I would like to also thank Yunyan Duan for late night lively discussions in our office, and her suggestions on data analyses. Thanks also goes to undergraduate research assistants: Alex Krauska, Jiayi Lu, Cecily Mejia, Anelia Kudin, Conor Jones, and Keeley Logsdon for their help 7 in generating stimuli and help with running some of the experiments reported in the dissertation. Working with you all was a great joy and happiness to me. My life at Northwestern would not have been as it is without my lovely cohorts. Many discussions regarding work and life in general with Kat Hall have been an indispensable source of memory during the times at Northwestern. I will always remember your family (Kat, Sean, Miles, and Mabel) when I think of PhD life. Tommy Denby has been a reliable and impeccable cohort, officemate, and a friend. I value his emotional and intellectual companionship, especially during our dissertation stages. Thank you for being such a genuine human being. I would also like to thank our technician, Chun Liang Chan for his help in technical issues. My deep gratitude goes to other linguists in and outside Northwestern: Brian Dillon, Luca Campanelli, Katy Carlson, Wing wee Chow, Kiel Christianson, Ian Cunnings, Mike Dickey, Cynthia Fisher, Kara Federmeier, Lyn Frazier, Grant Goodall, Jesse Harris, Matt Husband, Oriana Kilbourn-Ceron, Elsi Kaiser, Tyler Knowlton, Maryellen MacDonald, Maayan Keshev, Dave Kush, Sol Lago, Maryellen MacDonald, Shota Momma, Conny Myers, Jason Merchant, Dongwoo Park, Dan Parker, Pavel Logačev, Jeff Runner, John Trueswell, Matt Walenski, Eva Wittenberg, Ming Xiang, James Yoon, and Sion Yoon for their genuine support and many critical comments. I thank my friends, Yoonji Kim, Midam Kim, Sujung Kim, Linyi Zhang, and Kyounghee Lee for their support and friendship. I would also like to thank my teachers in Korea, to Hanjung Lee, Yongsoon Kang, Jihye Kim, and Nayoung Kwon for their warm encouragement and support over the past years. They triggered my interests in the investigations on linguistics as a window to better understand the human mind. 8 Parts of this dissertation have been graciously supported by NSF-DDRI grant. I thank NSF grant for their funding (NSF DDRI grant: BCS 1749580). Finally, I would like to thank my family who enormously supported me from across the Pacific Ocean. My special thanks go to my parents, my dad, Jitae Kim, and to my mom, Youkyung Kim, for always being my role models and my best friends. I am eternally grateful for both of your unconditional love, support, open-mindness and firm trust on every aspect of me. They have taught me that research must be firmly based in the belief that the human mind transcends all and is driven by the pursuit of the highest virtue of humanity.