Matrix and Relative Weak Crossover in Japanese: An Experimental Investigation
Haruka Fukushima, Daniel Plesniak, Daisuke Bekki
TL;DR
The study investigates whether weak crossover (BVA) effects differ structurally between matrix and relative clauses, addressing concerns that English word order may confound prior findings. By conducting a Japanese experiment with carefully balanced matrix (SOV/OSV) and relative (SRC/ORC) constructions and employing DR/Coref diagnostics to filter non-structural BVA sources, the authors test whether R-WCO is truly analogous to M-WCO. The results replicate Fukushima2024 in showing a robust matrix WCO pattern that disappears under noise-control when structure is the sole source, while ORC BVA readings persist for some participants, indicating a genuine structural distinction rather than a mere word-order effect. Overall, the findings support a structural asymmetry between matrix and relative clauses and challenge the existence of a uniform relative weak crossover, aligning with cross-linguistic evidence and motivating further experiments to pinpoint the precise structural mechanisms involved.
Abstract
This paper provides evidence that weak crossover effects differ in nature between matrix and relative clauses. Fukushima et al. (2024) provided similar evidence, showing that, when various non-structural factors were eliminated English speakers never accepted matrix weak crossover cases, but often accepted relative weak crossover ones. Those results were limited, however, by English word order, which lead to uncertainty as to whether this difference was due to the effects of linear precedence or syntactic structure. In this paper, to distinguish between these two possibilities, we conduct an experiment using Japanese, which lacks the word-order confound that English had. We find results that are qualitatively in line with Fukushima et al. (2024) suggesting that the relevant distinction is structural and not based simply on precedence.