Processing wh-filler-gap dependencies

We present experimental evidence showing that different wh-filler-gap dependencies are processed differently, depending on their syntactic licensors. Our studies compared the active storage profiles for why, how, and who (serving as subject or object of the verb). The results of offline and online experiments revealed that these wh-fillers are stored in memory for different durations, and predictably so based on the hypothesised structural distance between each wh-filler and the licensor which determines its grammatical and interpretive functions. Furthermore, the results showed that once the wh-filler is licenced, it is integrated to the current structure, and no longer engenders additional memory costs. Based on these findings, we argue that the mechanism of online sentence processing may employ both storage and integration components in memory.