Discourse-based constraints on long-distance dependencies generalize across constructions in English and French

Winckel E, Abeillé A, Hemforth B, Gibson E (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Cognition Elsevier

Book Volume: 254

Article Number: 105950

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105950

Abstract

The article presents four acceptability judgment experiments that evaluate novel predictions of the Focus-Background Conflict constraint (Abeillé et al. 2020, Cognition) with respect to the acceptability of long distance dependencies for so-called “subject islands” in English and French. In contrast with syntactic accounts, the Focus-Background Conflict constraint predicts differential behavior across different constructions. The current paper tests a novel prediction of this theory, in a construction that has not yet been tested experimentally: it-clefts. Experiment 1 shows that elements in clefted clauses are not uniformly backgrounded, contrary to a standard assumption in the syntax / discourse literature. Experiments 2–4 tested long-distance dependency relations in relative clauses and clefts. In both languages, there is strong evidence of a cross-construction difference when comparing the two constructions with each other: extraction of the subject complement out of a subject NP was super-additively difficult in clefts, but not in relative clauses, as predicted by the Focus-Background Conflict constraint.

Authors with CRIS profile

Elodie Winckel Lehrstuhl für Language und Cognition (Alexander von Humboldt-Professur)

Involved external institutions

Université Sorbonne Paris Cité FR France (FR) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Winckel, E., Abeillé, A., Hemforth, B., & Gibson, E. (2025). Discourse-based constraints on long-distance dependencies generalize across constructions in English and French. Cognition, 254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105950

MLA:

Winckel, Elodie, et al. "Discourse-based constraints on long-distance dependencies generalize across constructions in English and French." Cognition 254 (2025).

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