More people understand Eschers than the linguist does : the causes and effects of grammatical illusions

A grammatical illusion can be defined as a sentence that seems acceptable, but structurally, the sentence is ungrammatical. Grammatical illusions provide a challenge for linguists to understand why we do not immediately reject illusions like we do for most ungrammatical sentences. One type of illusion that has stirred several ongoing debates is the Escher Sentence. This dissertation focuses on the source of the illusory effect, or the reason why people fail to consistently reject these sentences. This dissertation explores the properties of Escher Sentences, the reason why they are illusory in nature, and what this contributes to our understanding of the parser. Six Experiments were designed to test the acceptability judgments, interpretations, and neurophysiological responses to these sentences. I conclude that Escher Sentences are recognized by the parser as ungrammatical, but because of the structure of these sentences, the parser is tricked into using a coercive operation to force Escher Sentences to have an acceptable interpretation. Escher Sentences gives us potential insight into the constraints of the parser in processing language while at the same time highlighting the parser’s strategies in resolving computations that are ungrammatical.