A subject relative clause preference in a split-ergative language: ERP evidence from Georgian

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Human language processing exhibits a preference for subject-gap relative clauses over object-gap ones across many languages.
• Recent studies in Basque, an ergative language, challenge this generalization, proposing a preference for gaps in morphologically unmarked positions.
• This suggests a potential shift in the understanding of universal processing principles in linguistics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether the classic subject-gap preference holds in Georgian, another ergative-absolutive language.
• To test the alternative generalization proposed for Basque in a different linguistic context.
• To contribute to the ongoing debate on the universality of human language processing constraints.

Main Methods:

• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to measure brain activity during language processing.
• Self-paced reading was employed to assess reading times and cognitive load.
• Participants processed Georgian sentences containing relative clauses with varying gap positions.

Main Results:

• ERP data revealed a significant anterior negativity for object-relative clauses compared to subject-relative clauses.
• Self-paced reading indicated slower reading times for object-relative clauses.
• These results demonstrate a processing cost associated with object-gap relative clauses in Georgian.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that the classic generalization—object-gap relative clauses are more costly than subject-gap ones—still applies to Georgian.
• This challenges the proposed alternative generalization based on morphological marking in ergative languages.
• The study highlights the complexity of cross-linguistic language processing and the need for further research into ergative languages.