That-trace effects in Spanish-English code-switching
Many languages, including English, exhibit a restriction on subject extraction over complementizers called the that-trace effect. Although extensively studied, this phenomenon remains a puzzle. Not all languages exhibit the effect; Spanish does not. Spanish also allows postverbal subjects, while English does not, which has been linked to the that-trace effect. Because Spanish/English differ in these properties, combining lexical items from both languages in a single derivation, as in code-switching, offers additional insight into the nature of the restriction. Two acceptability judgment tasks of Spanish/English code-switching reveal that a single Spanish functional head is insufficient to license either postverbal subjects or subject extraction. Instead, we argue, the that-trace effect and related properties arise from the interaction of two heads.
Article outline
- 1.The problem
- 2.Background and motivation
- 2.1Assumptions
- 2.2Contrasts between Spanish and English
- 2.3Theoretical background
- 3.Research questions and predictions
- 4.Methods
- 4.1Participants
- 4.2Procedure
- 4.3Design and materials
- 4.4Data pre-processing and statistical analysis
- 5.Experiment 1: Monolingual object extraction
- 5.1Experiment 1 design
- 5.2Experiment 1 results
- 5.3Experiment 1 discussion
- 6.Experiment 2: CS object extraction
- 6.1Experiment 2 design
- 6.2Experiment 2 results
- 6.3Experiment 2 discussion
- 7.Experiment 3: Monolingual subject extraction
- 7.1Experiment 3 design
- 7.2Experiment 3 results
- 7.3Experiment 3 discussion
- 8.Experiment 4: CS subject extraction
- 8.1Experiment 4 design
- 8.2Experiment 4 results
- 8.3Experiment 4 discussion
- 9.General discussion
- 9.1What determines subject position in Spanish-English CS?
- 9.2What determines whether subject extraction over a complementizer is possible?
- 9.3Subject position and that-trace
- 9.4The EPP
- 9.5CS and experimental syntax
- 10.Conclusions and future directions
-
Appendix
-
Acknowledgments
-
Notes
-
References
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