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10 - The That-Trace Effect

from Part II - Experimental Studies of Specific Phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

By
Wayne Cowart  and
Dana McDaniel
Edited by
Grant Goodall
Grant Goodall
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

The that-trace effect is one of several long-distance extraction phenomena that have been the focus of much work in generative syntax. The core pattern, though easily stated, remains a conundrum. It is evident in numbers of unrelated languages, but also appears to vary even in closely related languages. Experimental work that has tested the core contrasts both corroborates and refines them across languages and dialects. We find consistent evidence for the core pattern, as well as a reduction in the acceptability of object extraction over that. Experiments on German have uncovered previously unrecognized subject-object asymmetries, though the relevance to that-trace remains unclear. We also discuss the use of experimental approaches to assess theoretical accounts of the that-trace effect. We conclude with a summary of experimental findings bearing on that-trace and their implications for the general role of judgments in generative theory.

Keywords

long-distance extractionthat-trace effectComp-trace effectsubject/object extraction asymmetriesthat-effectexperimental syntaxacceptability judgments
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax , pp. 258 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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