Abstract:

In syntactic theory, one line of reasoning holds that [person] and [number] features are in the form of bundle features (Chomsky, 1995, 2000, 2004), while there are also views supporting the split features argument (Sigur?sson, 2004; Baker, 2008; Nevins, 2011, et al.). In addition to this distinction between [person] and [number] features, it is argued that there is also a hierarchical structure within the [person] feature and considering the cross-linguistic perspective, there is a 1/2>3 [person] hierarchy (Benveniste, 1966; Silverstein, 1985; Carminati, 2005; Bianchi, 2006). The present study aims to understand whether [person] and [number] features of third person in Turkish are split features or not through the repair strategy. Furthermore, the data collected in this study have been combined with that of Aygüneş (2012, 2013) and a second analysis was performed. The aim of this analysis was to identify the differences reflected to the repair process in person and number categories of the first and third person. Seventy participants took part in the study. The participants were presented with three sentence types including person, number, and both person and number mismatches between DP (Determiner Phrase) and To head (Tense Head) and were asked to correct these sentences. The results revealed that participants repaired sentences containing mismatch on the basis of the DP at a higher rate and word order did not influence the repair process. Moreover, a difference was observed in the repair of mismatches in the person and number categories in the third person. This finding is line with the argument that [person] and [number] are split features. When the present data were combined with data from Aygüneş (2012, 2013), a difference was observed between first and third person in the repair process, which stems from the number category. While the number category interacted with DP and To head at a similar rate in the first person, it interacted with the DP at a higher rate in the third person. This indicates that the third person differs from the first person, particularly in terms of the number category.

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