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Relative clause extraction: Pragmatic dominance, processing complexity and the nature of crosslinguistic variation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2015

John Löwenadler
John Löwenadler*
Affiliation:
University of Gothenburg, Department of Education and Special Education, Box 300, SE-40530 Gothenburg, Sweden. john.lowenadler@ped.gu.se
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Abstract

This paper concerns crosslinguistic differences in the acceptability of so-called relative clause extraction constructions, exemplified by the unacceptable English sentence *This boat I know the guy that owns (associated with the acceptable canonical sentence I know the guy that owns this boat). It has sometimes been argued, since Ross (1967), that such extractions are universally blocked by a syntactic constraint. However, following observations of such structures in English and other languages, some linguists have argued that such sentences have varying degrees of acceptability and that the degree of acceptability depends on attention limits and pragmatic foregroundedness/backgroundedness. Another view which appears to have gained ground in recent years is one where the degree of acceptability is directly related to processing difficulty. The analysis presented in this paper is based on a comparison between English and Swedish, and includes authentic data, examples previously discussed in the literature, as well as acceptability-tested invented sentences. In the end it will be argued that, while the dominance- and processing-based proposals are on the right track, there is a more plausible and straightforward way of explaining the observed crosslinguistic variation using the theoretical framework of Construction Grammar. Thus, an alternative account will be presented drawing on general principles which are well established within cognitive- and construction-based theories.

Keywords

Construction Grammarextractionfiller–gap constructionsisland constraintspragmatic dominanceprocessing effects
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 37 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2015 

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