1. Introduction
Syntax processing has been investigated with various paradigms such as
center-embedded and left- or right-branching sentences (Inui et al.,
1998; Sambin et al., 2012; Santi & Grodzinsky, 2010), in which the
modified head comes after or before the modifiers, respectively, and
garden-path sentences (Dempsey et al., 2020; den Ouden et al., 2016).
Relative clauses (RCs) have also been used in syntax research widely
(Cilibrasi et al., 2019; Kovelman, Shalinsky, et al., 2008; Levy et al.,
2013). Although there are different ways of classifying the RCs, one
classification depends on the function of the modified word in the
relative clause. If the modified word is the subject of the relative
clause, then it is a subject relative clause (SRC); if it is the object
of the relative clause, then it is an object relative clause (ORC).
Processing difficulties of ORCs and SRCs have been compared with various
methods such as electroencephalography (Bulut et al., 2018; Carreiras et
al., 2010), eye-tracking (Sung et al., 2016; Traxler et al., 2002), and
functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) (Ding et al., 2021).
Furthermore, different studies found that SRC processing was easier than
ORC processing in different languages such as English (King & Kutas,
1995), German (Schriefers et al., 1995), and Dutch (Mak et al., 2002).
Initially, it has been suggested that processing SRCs are universally
easier than processing ORCs as these languages differ from each other in
various linguistic features such as word order. For instance, the
canonical word order in English is Subject-Verb-Object, while in Dutch
and German it is Subject-Object-Verb. However, other studies carried out
in Mandarin Chinese (Hsiao & MacDonald, 2013; Sung et al., 2016) and
Basque (Carreiras et al., 2010) revealed easier ORC processing. Thus, it
was claimed that head-directionality could be a significant factor, and
SRC processing is easier in head-initial languages, in which the head of
the phrase precedes the phrase such as English and German, while ORC
processing is easier in head-final languages such as Basque and Mandarin
Chinese (Bulut et al., 2018). Turkish is a head-final language
with some flexibility (Özge et al., 2015), which implies an ORC
processing advantage. In Turkish, relative clauses are prenominal
structures (i.e., relative clause precedes the modified word or the
head). Subject and object relative clauses are produced by adding
different suffixes to the relative clause verb; “-en” for SRC (1) and
“-dık” for ORC (2).
(1) Yönetmen-i beğen-en dansçıokul-a gidi-yor-du .
Director -Acc admire-SRC dancer
school-Dat go-Prog-Past