Control & Raising: agreement processing differences during sentence production in Spanish

SÁNCHEZ, MARIA ELINA; SEVILLA, YAMILA; BACHRACH, ASAF

Bilbao

Conferencia; 22nd AMLaP Conference. Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing; 2016

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language. Universidad del País Vasco

We report the results of a study investigating the production of gender and number agreement between matrix head noun and an embedded predicative adjective in Spanish using an elicited-error paradigm with preambles that included either Control (CV) or Raising verbs (RV) (Ex. Sorprendentemente eligió (CV)/ parecía (RV) el cuñado (head noun or N1) del verdulero (local noun or N2) anoche estar? ?Last night, the greengrocer?s brother-in-law surprisingly chose/ seemed to be??). In order to identify if the subjects of the infinitivals selected by these two verb types are syntactically identical (Movement Theory of Control) or distinct (Theory of Control by PRO or anaphora), the following features in the preambles were manipulated: gender of N1 (Feminine-Masculine), gender and number (Singular-Plural) of N2, and type of verb (Control-Raising). We analyzed the agreement errors pattern, omissions, and response times in the production of the target adjective. The error rate was not different across the two syntactic conditions, but the Control verb class was associated with significantly larger number of target omissions. Furthermore, omissions in the Control condition were specifically associated with feminine head nouns. This pattern was also reflected in the adjective production latency. Taken together, these results undermine a unified account of Raising and Control (i.e. the Control by Movement Theory) and argue for a Control by PRO analysis of Control constructions. Our findings provide novel data to both theoretical and experimental discussions about the difference between Control and Raising.