{"pk":52828,"title":"Resumptive pronouns form on-line dependencies with fillers in English: Evidence from the Maze task","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigated the processing of resumptive pronouns in English relative clauses. We asked whether resumptive pronouns in complex relative clauses formed from islands and non-islands establish dependencies with head nouns in incremental processing. Based on the findings from two reading time experiments using the Maze task with the gender-mismatch paradigm, as well as an off-line comprehension study, we conclude that (i) a dependency is formed with the head noun immediately upon encountering the resumptive pronoun; (ii) dependency formation is easier across islands than across non-islands; (iii) dependency formation privileges the head noun over intervening noun phrases; and (iv) these dependencies are maintained in off-line comprehension. The data suggest that although resumptive pronouns are judged to be unacceptable in English, comprehenders automatically and immediately integrate them using routines similar to filler-gap dependencies. We discuss the implications of our findings for the question of whether resumptive pronouns facilitate filler dependency formation in comparison to gaps, a possible reason why dependencies would be easier to establish across islands than across non-islands, and how the use of resumptive pronouns may benefit listeners as well as speakers.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[],"section":"Regular Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/54r8g7t1","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Chung-hye","middle_name":"","last_name":"Han","name_suffix":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University and Ewha Womans University","department":""},{"first_name":"Trevor","middle_name":"","last_name":"Block","name_suffix":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","department":""},{"first_name":"Holly","middle_name":"","last_name":"Gendron","name_suffix":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","department":""},{"first_name":"Dennis","middle_name":"Ryan","last_name":"Storoshenko","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Calgary","department":""},{"first_name":"Jesse","middle_name":"","last_name":"Weir","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Calgary","department":""},{"first_name":"Sara","middle_name":"","last_name":"Williamson","name_suffix":"","institution":"Simon Fraser University","department":""},{"first_name":"Keir","middle_name":"","last_name":"Moulton","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2025-09-13T18:39:18.929000Z","date_accepted":"2026-03-20T18:07:52.904231Z","date_published":"2026-05-06T17:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"XML","type":"xml","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/glossapsycholinguistics/article/52828/galley/49525/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"XML","type":"xml","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/glossapsycholinguistics/article/52828/galley/49525/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/glossapsycholinguistics/article/52828/galley/49526/download/"}]}