On-line comprehension of VP-ellipsis: syntactic reconstruction and semantic influence.

We describe two experiments that explored the on-line processing of coordinated (e.g., The policemen defended himself and the fireman did [e] too, according to someone who was there) and subordinated VP-ellipsis (e.g., The policeman defended himself because the fireman did [e], according to someone who was there). Such constructions have two possible interpretations: The "sloppy" reading is that the fireman defended himself, where himself corefers with the fireman. The "strict" reading is that the fireman defended him, where him corefers with the policeman. In our experiments we examined the strict reading, and found different time courses of processing the coordinated and subordinated structures. In coordination we found immediate reaccess of the nonlocal subject at the gap. In subordinated structures we found the reaccess effect only downstream from the gap. We interpret these patterns as reflecting the automatic nature of gap filling in coordinated ellipsis, but in subordinated ellipsis a causal relation must be computed between the two clauses, " drawing out" reaccess of the filler.