| This study investigates empty category (or 'gap') interpretation by native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Two research methods (sentence completion and self-paced reading) and four experiments were employed to examine the strategy adopted to assign a reference (or a 'filler') to an identified empty category in real-time sentence comprehension. The sentences tested included main clause, clausal subject, clausal object, and relative clause constructions, all of which contained an empty category in subject position (pro, PRO or trace, according to the construction). There are three pertinent research questions: (I) When a gap is identified before its filler is, does the parser adopt the first candidate filler, or does it wait to see whether a better filler may subsequently appear? (II) How does empty category interpretation interact with structural ambiguity resolution? (III) Is local interpretation of a gap (as generic in reference) preferred over association with a filler elsewhere in the sentence?;Re Question I: The data indicate that the parser adopts the first available filler. This candidate filler may be in the already parsed segment of the sentence, or the first plausible filler encountered in subsequent words.;Re Question II: The results show that the parser, when facing a combined structural and empty category ambiguity, is willing to sacrifice a preferred structural analysis in order to obtain an optimal reference for an empty category.;Re Question III: For the empty subject within a clausal subject, the parser can either locally assign a generic interpretation or else search for an overt filler in the sentence. The data show that the parser prefers the latter strategy, and takes a generic interpretation as the last resort if no filler is found.;These findings can be integrated into a comprehensive parsing strategy (an 'Active Gap Strategy') for on-line empty category interpretation in Chinese. This strategy is proposed as a universal strategy, alongside Minimal Attachment and others. |
