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19 - Acceptability Studies in Semitic Languages

from Part III - Experimental Studies of Specific Populations and Language Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

By
Aya Meltzer-Asscher
Edited by
Grant Goodall
Grant Goodall
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

Formal acceptability experiments are particularly important for languages with smaller communities of linguists, including most Semitic languages. However, experimental studies of sentence acceptability in this language family are still rare, and focus on very few phenomena (notably wh-dependencies) and languages (mostly Arabic and Hebrew). This chapter reviews the extant literature on acceptability studies in Semitic languages. Special attention is given to studies on island constraints, resumptive pronouns – a conspicuous feature of Semitic –and their interaction, revealing a complex pattern of results. The scant literature on agreement and ditransitive structures is also discussed. The review also highlights some unexplored topics in Semitic syntax, which will benefit from future experimental work, including free word order, verbless sentences, and construct states. Finally, the chapter outlines some of the challenges facing researchers conducting experimental work in Semitic, including issues of diglossia, as well as technical challenges relating to script, online databases, and participant recruitment.

Keywords

acceptabilitySemitic languageswh-dependenciesisland constraintsresumptive pronounsagreementditransitive structures
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax , pp. 505 - 533
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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