Complex verbal adjuncts in declaratives and interrogatives: Experimental evidence
Abstract
This paper discusses a set of verbal adjuncts in English that is characterized by syntactic, semantic, and information-structural complexity. I will focus on extraction asymmetries reported for this adjunct class and argue that these asymmetries do not necessarily require additional grammatical licensing principles. Instead, I will present experimental evidence showing that the reported extraction asymmetries are actually unrelated to extraction because the same effects can be observed in non-extraction constructions. Factors like the aspectual class of the embedding verb and its grammatical verb type lead to identical relative acceptability differences in the presence and absence of extraction, so that the reported extraction asymmetries investigated in this paper can be explained independently without the requirement for grammatical licensing principles. This points in the direction of independent effects on acceptability which can be linked to different degrees of processing complexity in the adjunct type under investigation.
Abstract
This paper discusses a set of verbal adjuncts in English that is characterized by syntactic, semantic, and information-structural complexity. I will focus on extraction asymmetries reported for this adjunct class and argue that these asymmetries do not necessarily require additional grammatical licensing principles. Instead, I will present experimental evidence showing that the reported extraction asymmetries are actually unrelated to extraction because the same effects can be observed in non-extraction constructions. Factors like the aspectual class of the embedding verb and its grammatical verb type lead to identical relative acceptability differences in the presence and absence of extraction, so that the reported extraction asymmetries investigated in this paper can be explained independently without the requirement for grammatical licensing principles. This points in the direction of independent effects on acceptability which can be linked to different degrees of processing complexity in the adjunct type under investigation.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- Exploring the interplay of information structure, discourse and common ground: Theoretical and empirical perspectives 1
- Focusing operators – Semantic differences and modes of interaction 15
- Questions Underpin Deletion: A response to Barros and Kotek (2019) 51
- Ambiguity of wh-questions 87
- In Pursuit of Condition C: (non-)coreference in grammar, discourse and processing 127
- Questions under discussion, salience and the acceptability of fragments 157
- Ellipsis and the QUD: Sluicing with nominal antecedents 191
- Which syntactician which kind of ellipsis: An experimental investigation of multiple sluicing 231
- Complex verbal adjuncts in declaratives and interrogatives: Experimental evidence 275
- Adverbial modification and (non-)at-issue content 315
- The information structure and common ground status of weil-fragments in German 337
- Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- Exploring the interplay of information structure, discourse and common ground: Theoretical and empirical perspectives 1
- Focusing operators – Semantic differences and modes of interaction 15
- Questions Underpin Deletion: A response to Barros and Kotek (2019) 51
- Ambiguity of wh-questions 87
- In Pursuit of Condition C: (non-)coreference in grammar, discourse and processing 127
- Questions under discussion, salience and the acceptability of fragments 157
- Ellipsis and the QUD: Sluicing with nominal antecedents 191
- Which syntactician which kind of ellipsis: An experimental investigation of multiple sluicing 231
- Complex verbal adjuncts in declaratives and interrogatives: Experimental evidence 275
- Adverbial modification and (non-)at-issue content 315
- The information structure and common ground status of weil-fragments in German 337
- Index
