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Preposition copying and pruning in present-day English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2012

ANDREW RADFORD ,
CLAUDIA FELSER  and
OLIVER BOXELL
ANDREW RADFORD
Affiliation:
Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 [email protected]
CLAUDIA FELSER
Affiliation:
Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, University of Potsdam, Campus Golm, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24–25, 14476 Potsdam, [email protected], [email protected]
OLIVER BOXELL
Affiliation:
Potsdam Research Institute for Multilingualism, University of Potsdam, Campus Golm, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24–25, 14476 Potsdam, [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

This article investigates the nature of preposition copying and preposition pruning structures in present-day English. We begin by illustrating the two phenomena and consider how they might be accounted for in syntactic terms, and go on to explore the possibility that preposition copying and pruning arise for processing reasons. We then report on two acceptability judgement experiments examining the extent to which native speakers of English are sensitive to these types of ‘error’ in language comprehension. Our results indicate that preposition copying creates redundancy rather than ungrammaticality, whereas preposition pruning creates processing problems for comprehenders that may render it unacceptable in timed (but not necessarily in untimed) judgement tasks. Our findings furthermore illustrate the usefulness of combining corpus studies and experimentally elicited data for gaining a clearer picture of usage and acceptability, and the potential benefits of examining syntactic phenomena from both a theoretical and a processing perspective.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 403 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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