An Experimental Investigation of the Binding Options of Demonstrative Pronouns

Abstract

This  paper  discusses  three  reading  time  studies  which,  first,  provide  empirical evidence for the claim made by Hinterwimmer (2015) that German demonstrative pronouns can in  principle be bound under c-command as long as their binders are not grammatical subjects (Experiments  1  –  3).  Second,  Experiment  3,  which  compares  demonstrative  and  personal pronouns, shows that demonstrative pronouns can not only be used in binding configurations in order to avoid ambiguity (as claimed in Patel-Grosz and Grosz, to appear). Rather, sentences containing them are processed as easily as ones containing personal pronouns, provided that the respective binders are direct or indirect objects.