Cover not available

In:Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics: Selected papers from the Hispanic Linguistic Symposium 2015
Edited by Jonathan E. MacDonald
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 15] 2018
► pp. 309–332

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 14
Extra-syntactic factors in the that-trace effect

 | University of Southern Maine
 | University of Illinois at Chicago
Published online: 14 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.15.15hei
Abstract
Using predictions from the Interface Hypothesis and the grammar of Spanish-English bilinguals, we test whether non-syntactic factors play a role in the that-trace effect. Though generally analyzed syntactically, some work on that-trace supports a syntax-prosody account (Kandybowicz, 2006). The Interface Hypothesis predicts that bilinguals will have difficulty with interface phenomena but not narrow syntax, such that testing bilinguals’ knowledge of that-trace provides a unique testing ground for comparing the two approaches. We demonstrate that bilinguals have the syntactic underpinnings necessary for both syntactic and syntax-prosody accounts of that-trace; however, they differ from the monolinguals with regard to that-trace, extending the phenomenon’s restriction on extraction to a new context, supporting a syntax-prosody account of that-trace.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The that-trace effect
    • 2.1Extraction restrictions in Spanish and English
    • 2.2Syntactic accounts of the that-trace effect
    • 2.3Interface-based accounts
  • 3.The Interface Hypothesis
  • 4.Subject placement and the that-trace effect
  • 5.Experiment 1
    • 5.1Methods
    • 5.2Results
  • 6.Experiment 2
    • 6.1Methods
    • 6.2Results
    • 6.3Interim discussion
  • 7.Experiment 3
    • 7.1Methods
    • 7.2Results
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (42)
References
Bae, S. H. (2015). The syntax-phonology interface in native and near-native Korean. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Harvard University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bresnan, J. (1977). Variables in the theory of transformations. In P. W. Culicover, T. Wasow, & A. Akmajian (Eds.), Formal syntax (pp. 157–196). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bullock, B. E. (2009). Prosody in contact in French: A case study from a heritage variety in the USA. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 165–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cabin, R. J., & Mitchell, R. J. (2000). To Bonferroni or not to Bonferroni: When and how are the questions. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 81(3), 246–248.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Chene, B. (2000). Prosody and subject traces. Unpublished manuscript, Waseda University. Tokyo. <[URL]>
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colantoni, L., & Gurlekian, J. (2004). Convergence and intonation: Historical evidence from Buenos Aires Spanish. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 7(2), 107–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culicover, P. W. (1993). The adverb effect: Evidence against ecp accounts of the that-t effect. In A. J. Schafer (Ed.) Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 23 (pp. 97–111). University of Ottawa: Graduate Linguistic Student Association.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donaldson, B. (2011). Nativelike right-dislocation in near-native French. Second Language Research, 27(3), 361–390. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebert, S. (2014) The Morphosyntax of Wh-questions: Evidence from Spanish-English Code-switching. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27(2), 141–172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elordieta, G. (2003). The Spanish intonation of speakers of a Basque pitch-accent dialect. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2, 67–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). An overview of theories of the syntax-phonology interface. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca “Julio de Urquijo”, 42(1), 209–286.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garamszegi, L. Z. (2006). Comparing effect sizes across variables: Generalization without the need for Bonferroni correction. Behavioral Ecology, 17(4), 682–687. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
González-Vilbazo, K., Bartlett, L., Downey, S., Ebert, S., Heil, J., Hoot, B., … Ramos, S. (2013). Methodological considerations in code-switching research. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 6(1), 119–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, Y., & Ellis, R. (1998). Implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge and general language proficiency. Language Teaching Research, 2(1):1–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ionin, T., & Montrul, S. A. (2009). Article use and generic reference. Parallels between L1- and L2- acquisition. In M. del P. Gacía Mayo, & R. Hawkins (Eds.), Second language acquisition of articles: Empirical findings and theoretical implications (pp. 147–173). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ivanov, I. P. (2012). L2 acquisition of Bulgarian clitic doubling: A test case for the Interface Hypothesis. Second Language Research, 28(3), 345–368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kandybowicz, J. (2006). Comp-trace effects explained away. In D. Baumer, D. Montero, & M. Scanlon (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 220–228.) Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). Embracing edges: Syntactic and phono-syntactic edge sensitivity in Nupe. Natural Language Linguistic Theory, 27, 305–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martinović, M. (2014). Wh-morphology and cyclicity in Wolof. Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago. <[URL]>
Montrul, S. A. (2004). Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morpho-syntactic convergence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7, 125–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Rourke, E. (2003). Peak alignment in two regional varieties of Peruvian Spanish intonation. In J. Auger, J. Clements, & B. Vance (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to Romance linguistics (pp. 321–341). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perlmutter, D. (1971). Deep and surface structure constraints in syntax. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, D. (2015). Complementizer-trace effects. In M. Everaert, & H. van Riemsdijk (Eds.), Companion to syntax. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1982). Complementizer-trace phenomena and the nominative islands condition. The Linguistic Review, 1, 297–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rice, W. R. (1989). Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution, 43(1), 223–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. (1982). Negation, wh-movement and the null subject parameter. In L. Rizzi (Ed.), Issues in Italian syntax (pp. 117–185). Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schütze, C. T. (1996). The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., & Paoli, S. (2004). Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax – pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English – Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 7(3), 183–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., & Ivanov, I. (2011). A more careful look at the syntax-discourse interface. Lingua, 121(4), 637–651. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2005). Selective optionality in language development. In L. Cornips, & K. P. Corrigan (Eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social (pp. 55–80). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22, 339–368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism 13, 195–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suñer, M., (1994). V-movement and the licensing of argumental wh-phrases in Spanish. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 12(2), 335–372. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M., & Sorace, A. (2006). Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax – semantics and syntax – discourse phenomena. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 653–664). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M. (2014). Early, late or very late? Timing acquisition and bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 4(3), 283–313. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, L. (2009). Grammatical theory: Interfaces and L2 knowledge. In T. Bhatia, & W. Ritchie (Eds.), The new handbook of second language acquisition (2nd ed., pp. 49–68). Bingley: Emerald.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, E. J., Genesee, F., & Steinhauer, K. (2012). Brain responses before and after intensive second language learning: Proficiency based changes and first language background effects in adult learners. PloS one, 7(12), e52318. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, F., Sorace, A., & Keller, F. (2009). Antecedent preferences for anaphoric demonstratives in L2 German. In J. Chandlee, M. Franchini, S. Lord, & G-M. Rheiner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 634–645). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Aldosari, Saad & Lauren Covey
2024.  That-trace effects in Najdi Arabic L2 learners of English. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 14:6 ► pp. 915 ff. DOI logo
Kim, Boyoung & Grant Goodall
2024. The source of the that-trace effect: New evidence from L2 English. Second Language Research 40:1 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Chomsky, Noam, T. Daniel Seely, Robert C. Berwick, Sandiway Fong, M. A. C. Huybregts, Hisatsugu Kitahara, Andrew McInnerney & Yushi Sugimoto
2023. Merge and the Strong Minimalist Thesis, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue