Euskal perpausen hurrenkeren prozesamendua kasu-sistemaren argitan

Abstract

In a self paced reading experiment, we measured the reading times of four word orders (SOV, SVO, OSV, and OVS) in Basque. Our results suggest that SOV is the canonicalword orders as already has been attested (Ortiz de Urbina, 1989; Erdocia et al., 2009; Erdociaet al., 2012). The verb medial word orders (SVO and OVS) showed a great processing costat sentence final position which is not found in verb final orders, favouring the preference ofBasque speakers for verb final structures. Futher, the OSV word order showed an increasein reading times at S position in comparison with SOV. That results could be interpreted as asyntactic reanalysis in OSV word order. That reanalysis effect has not been observed in SVOand OVS word orders, suggesting that both word orders are not canonical. Further, we observedthat unmarked absolutive objects (-Ø) are always processed faster than ergative subjects(-k).