Grammaticality illusion or ambiguous interpretation? Event-related potentials reveal the nature of the missing-NP effect in Mandarin centre-embedded structures

arXiv:2402.11282v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: In several languages, omitting a verb phrase (VP) in double centre-embedded structures creates a grammaticality illusion. Similar illusion also exhibited in Mandarin missing-NP double centre-embedded structures. However, there is no consensus on its very nature. Instead of treating it as grammaticality illusion, we argue that ambiguous interpretations of verbs can best account for this phenomenon in Mandarin. To further support this hypothesis, we conducted two electroencephalography (EEG) experiments on quasi double centre-embedded structures whose complexity …

abstract arxiv centre consensus cs.cl embedded event interpretation languages nature type