The cat the dog the rat bit chased ran (or whatever)
Yes, this is probably not easily comprehended by untrained native
speakers of English.
However, consider the grammatically parallel:
The lunch the chef the new owner hired prepared reeked.
Here, cues beyond the grammatical allow us to figure out what happened
and processing is far easier.
I do agree that the likelihood of such sentences occurring is small, but
the grammar does correctly account for them. So, there is obviously
more to what we can and cannot say/process than grammaticality. Our
perceptual strategies, which influence and are probably influenced by
production constraints are very important, perhaps moreso.
BTW, I still remember the following example given by Professor Thomas
Bever at Columbia:
The oyster the oyster the oyster split split split.
Best,
Eileen Prince Lou
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Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
eprince@lynx.dac.neu.edu
phone: 617-373-3925 fax: 617-373-8929
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