Modelling relative clauses in Processability Theory and Lexical-Functional Grammar
Emilia Nottbeck · Processability approaches to language acquisition research & teaching · 2019
This chapter formally analyses English relative clause (RC) constructions within the framework of Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998 , 2005 ) using the grammatical formalism of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) ( Bresnan, 2001 ) as an analytical tool. A theoretical account of (a) the classification of RCs in terms of the PT hierarchy of processing procedures and (b) a processing hierarchy of different types of RCs is provided that is based on the linear and non-linear mapping processes between c- and f-structure. This approach is extended by the discussion of the syntactic role of the head noun phrase (NPhead) in the matrix clause considering general assumptions about working memory ( Kuno, 1974 ) and the grammatical memory store ( Levelt, 1989 ).