The Influence of Binding Theory on the On-line Reference Resolution of Pronouns

This paper addresses the following main question: How do the structural constraints of Binding Theory interact with on-line sentence processing? There have been two types of answers to this question hypothesized in the literature: (1) the Initial Filter hypothesis, which claims that Binding Theory constrains the sentence processing system from the earliest moments of reference resolution (Nicol & Swinney, 1989; Sturt, 2003); and (2) the Multiple Constraints hypothesis, which claims that Binding Theory constraints are among a larger set of constraints applying simultaneously during sentence processing (Badecker & Straub, 2002). We present the results of a study using eye-movements to investigate the role of Binding Theory during sentence processing. Our results show that from the very earliest moments participants consider both Binding Theory-compatible and Binding Theoryincompatible referents, which is inconsistent with the initial filter hypothesis, but consistent with the multiple constraints hypothesis.