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dc.contributor.authorKush, Dave Whitney
dc.contributor.authorLohndal, Terje
dc.contributor.authorSprouse, Jonathan
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-02T11:48:07Z
dc.date.available2018-07-02T11:48:07Z
dc.date.issued2017-11-27
dc.description.abstractWe present a series of large-scale formal acceptability judgment studies that explored Norwegian island phenomena in order to follow up on previous observations that speakers of Mainland Scandinavian languages like Norwegian accept violations of certain island constraints that are unacceptable in most languages cross-linguistically. We tested the acceptability of wh-extraction from five island types: whether-, complex NP, subject, adjunct, and relative clause (RC) islands. We found clear evidence of subject and adjunct island effects on wh-extraction. We failed to find evidence that Norwegians accept wh-extraction out of complex NPs and RCs. Our participants judged wh-extraction from complex NPs and RCs to be just as unacceptable as subject and adjunct island violations. The pattern of effects in Norwegian paralleled island effects that recent experimental work has documented in other languages like English and Italian (Sprouse et al. 2012, 2016). Norwegian judgments consistently differed from prior findings for one island type: whether-islands. Our results reveal that Norwegians exhibit significant inter-individual variation in their sensitivity to whether-island effects, with many participants exhibiting no sensitivity to whether-island violations whatsoever. We discuss the implications of our findings for universalist approaches to island constraints. We also suggest ways of reconciling our results with previous observations, and offer a systematic experimental framework in which future research can investigate factors that govern apparent island insensitivity.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNIH NRSA grant 5F32HD080331 NSF grants BCS-0843896 and BCS-1347115en_US
dc.descriptionThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Natural language & linguistic theory. The final authenticated version is available online at: <a href=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-017-9390-z> https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-017-9390-z</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.citationKush, D., Lohndal, T. & Sprouse, J. (2017). Investigating variation in island effects: A case study of Norwegian extraction. Natural language & linguistic theory, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-017-9390-zen_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1519365
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s11049-017-9390-z
dc.identifier.issn0167-806X
dc.identifier.issn1573-0859
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/13111
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Verlag (Germany)en_US
dc.relation.journalNatural language & linguistic theory
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Språkvitenskapelige fag: 010en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010en_US
dc.subjectIsland effectsen_US
dc.subjectNorwegianen_US
dc.subjectExperimental syntaxen_US
dc.subjectwh-movementen_US
dc.subjectCross-linguistic variationen_US
dc.subjectScandinavianen_US
dc.titleInvestigating variation in island effects: A case study of Norwegian extractionen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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