Event Detail
Grant Goodall (UCSD)
| Fri November 14, 2008 |
Doing syntax experimentally: Two case studies from Spanish
The study of syntax has been moving in a more rigorously experimental direction in recent years, but there is little consensus as to whether the possible benefits are worth the trouble. Few would disagree that experimental approaches can potentially yield greater certainty with regard to the data, more precision in dealing with subtle contrasts in acceptability, and a better ability to present results in a form comprehensible to researchers in neighboring disciplines, but I will argue here that there are more significant benefits as well. By means of two case studies from Spanish, I show that experimental methods can uncover types of data and classes of analyses that would likely remain hidden if one were to rely solely on traditional methods. The first case involves extraction of embedded subjects and a previously unnoticed that-trace effect in Spanish. The second case involves the effect of the intervening subject on inversion in wh-questions in Spanish. The two cases together show that both “degrees of goodness” and “degrees of badness” can play a crucial role in syntactic analysis. |
| Location: Communications 311 |
| Time: 3 - 4:30pm |
| Series: Linguistics Colloquia |
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