The discourse functions of grammatical constructions explain an enduring syntactic puzzle

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Syntax
• Grammatical Theory

Background:

• Grammatical constructions have specific communicative functions, like marking information as at-issue or backgrounded.
• Combining multiple constructions requires functional compatibility; incompatible functions can lead to ungrammaticality.
• Syntactic island constraints, particularly concerning Long-Distance Dependencies (LDDs), are poorly understood and often attributed to innate syntactic rules.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the functional basis of syntactic island constraints.
• To test the hypothesis that island constraints arise from a clash between the prominence function of LDDs and the backgrounding function of base constructions.
• To determine if LDDs combine less felicitously with base constructions that background their elements.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered study involving 680 participants.
• Evaluation of 10 distinct English base constructions and 3 Long-Distance Dependency (LDD) constructions.
• Measurement of backgroundedness using two independent metrics and correlation with acceptability ratings of combined constructions.

Main Results:

• Two independent measures of backgroundedness significantly correlated with acceptability ratings across the three LDD constructions.
• The degree to which a base construction backgrounds its elements predicts its compatibility with LDD constructions.
• Results support the functional incompatibility hypothesis over innate syntactic constraints.

Conclusions:

• Syntactic island constraints are not necessarily innate but emerge from functional clashes between grammatical constructions.
• The perceived ungrammaticality of certain constructions is due to the incompatibility of making an element both prominent (via LDD) and backgrounded (via base construction).
• This study offers a functional explanation for previously enigmatic syntactic phenomena.