Bridging the gap between processing preferences and typological distributions: initial evidence from the online comprehension of control constructions in Hindi

Abstract

Previous empirical results have revealed an interesting correspondence between online language comprehension strategies and typological distributions, namely a preference for accusative {S,A} alignment over ergative {S,O} alignment. In the processing domain, this preference is reflected in the preferred analysis of an initial ambiguous argument. In the typological domain, it can be seen in the higher tendency for language change to proceed from an {S,O} to an {S,A} alignment rather than vice versa. A correlation between these two obse Show more