Local and Universal
Nino Grillo · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) · 2012
Cuetos and Mitchell 1988, and much subsequent work, report that speakers of different languages differ in Relative Clause attachment preferences in complex NPs. These findings challenged universal theories of processing and in particular the universality of locality in parsing. In this paper, I argue that asymmetries in attachment preference stem from a previously unnoticed grammatical distinction: the availability of Pseudo Relatives. Drawing on previous data and novel results, I conclude that Locality is a genuine universal principle of processing. To Luigi, A small contribution to a beautiful theory of locality