The Binding Theory from a Psycholinguistic Perspective

The Binding Theory has been the center of a controversy in psycholinguistics concerning how the constraints of the grammar interact with on-line processing. On one view, the Binding Theory acts as an initial filter on noun phrase interpretation; on the other, the constraints of the Binding Theory are at play alongside other constraints influencing the processing of sentences. This talk will outline the debate, bringing new data from my own recent work into the discussion. The types of psycholinguistic methods to be discussed include cross-modal lexical priming, self-paced reading, eye-tracking during reading, and visual world eye-tracking.