Null-Prep as a systematic interlanguage phenomenon: evidence from relative clauses, interrogatives, and sluicing constructions

This study attempts to explain a systematic phenomenon that has been described in interlanguage grammars crosslinguistically: Null-Prep, which consists of omitting the obligatory preposition in certain movement constructions. We propose that Null-Prep is not related to lack of knowledge of wh-moveme...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Perpiñán, Sílvia, Cardinaletti, Anna
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/56493
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56493
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02676583221132198
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Null-Prep
Llenguatge i llengües--Gramàtiques
Llengua segona--Adquisició
Interllengües
Descripción
Sumario:This study attempts to explain a systematic phenomenon that has been described in interlanguage grammars crosslinguistically: Null-Prep, which consists of omitting the obligatory preposition in certain movement constructions. We propose that Null-Prep is not related to lack of knowledge of wh-movement, as previously assumed, but to structural complexity; indeed, we consider Null-Prep a movement-derived structure. With evidence from prepositional relative clauses, wh-interrogatives, and sluicing constructions in L1 and L2 Spanish (English and Arabic L1s), we predict the potential appearance of the Null-Prep with a two-way complexity hierarchy that takes into account the syntactic position displaced, as well as its derivational complexity, in such a way that we calculate Null-Prep to occur more often in Relative Clauses, followed by Sluicing, and finally by Questions. This scalar phenomenon uniformly applies to all participants, native and L2 learners, emphasizing its universal nature.