LINGUIST List 18.2822: Syntax: Sprouse: 'A Program for Experimental Syntax'

LINGUIST List 18.2822

Fri Sep 28 2007

Diss: Syntax: Sprouse: 'A Program for Experimental Syntax'

Editor for this issue: Luiza Newlin Lukowicz <luizalinguistlist.org>

Directory 1. Jon Sprouse, A Program for Experimental Syntax

Message 1: A Program for Experimental Syntax
Date: 27-Sep-2007
From: Jon Sprouse <jsprouseuci.edu>
Subject: A Program for Experimental Syntax
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Institution: University of Maryland Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2007

Author: Jon Sprouse

Dissertation Title: A Program for Experimental Syntax

Dissertation URL: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jsprouse/cv/

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax
Dissertation Director:
Howard Lasnik
Dissertation Abstract:

There has always been interest in the methodology of acceptability judgmentcollection, and in particular the reliability of the results. The pastseveral years have seen an increase in the number of studies employingformal experimental techniques, or experimental syntax, to refine the dataunderlying syntactic theories. This dissertation argues that experimentalsyntax has the potential to be more than just a methodological footnote totheoretical syntax: experimental syntax can be used to investigate therelationship between acceptability judgments and the nature of grammaticalknowledge.

Each chapter applies the tools of experimental syntax to a claim about thenature of grammatical knowledge that is based upon acceptability judgments.The claims include: that grammatical knowledge is gradient, thatgrammatical knowledge is sensitive to context, that the stability orinstability of acceptability reflects underlying differences in the form ofgrammatical knowledge, that processing effects affect acceptability, andthat acceptability effects have little to contribute to theories of thenature of dependency forming operations.

Using constraints on wh-movement as an empirical basis of the research, theresults of these studies suggest that experimental syntax can lead to newinsights into the nature of gramamtical knowledge and its relationship withacceptability.