Pronoun interpretation in Right Node Raising: Psycholinguistic evidence for a dual analysis

Abstract

The syntactic and semantic properties of Right Node Raising (RNR) are 
still debated. Some prior work analyzes RNR as backward ellipsis, while others argue that the pivot is dominated by multiple nodes (multidominance), and yet others favor a dual analysis, claiming RNR results from ellipsis or multidominance or both. 
We report three psycholinguistic experiments on pronoun interpretation in RNR constructions, including gender-matching/mismatching pronouns, and identify systematic asymmetries in availability of strict and sloppy readings. We suggest that our results are best interpreted as evidence for a dual-analysis approach, according to which RNR can be derived via ellipsis or multidominance.