Earticle

This paper investigates the comparative processing difficulty of dative and subject relative clauses in Korean, using an eyetracking method. Previous studies of relative clauses have concluded that an object gap is more difficult to process than a subject gap across languages. Two possible explanations for this subject-gap preference are that an object gap is a) structurally more distant from its head or b) linearly more distant from its head than a subject gap. The explanation in (a) predicts that a dative gap should be more difficult to process than a subject gap in Korean while that in (b) predicts the relative ease of a dative gap. The current results of response times and question-answering accuracy confirmed the subject-gap preference: that is, subject gaps were processed faster and more accurately. Eye movement patterns also showed a difference between the two gap types in the amount of active eye movements and fixation durations, indicating that a dative gap is more difficult to access and thus takes more time to process. Thus the current study provides support for the structural distance hypothesis.