Surprisal Derives the Recent Filler Heuristic in Mildly Context Sensitive Grammars

This paper provides a new account for why online processing of filler-gap relative clause dependencies is more difficult in cases where filler-gap interacts with object control than in cases involving subject control, as reported by Frazier et al. (1983). Frazier et al. (1983) argued for a Recent Filler heuristic in which the parser expects to discharge the most recent filler at every gap site. We observe that statistical subcategorization preferences on the control verb and the embedded verb 'sing' interact , favoring subject control disambiguation. We employ surprisal (Hale, 2001) as a complexity metric on filler-gap structures by construing control as a Movement operation in Minimalist Grammars (Stabler, 1997). We obtain greater surprisals for the Distant Filler condition, deriving the prediction that the Recent Filler heuristic falls out from statistical subcategorization preferences.