Sources of Discreteness and Gradience in Island Effects

• Published in: Languages (Basel) Vol. 7; no. 4; p. 245
• Main Author: Chaves, Rui P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Adaptation; English language; Familiarity; frequency; Grammar, Comparative and general; Islands; Pragmatics; satiation; Sentence structure; Sentences; Slavic languages; Syntactic islands; Syntactic movement; Syntax; United Kingdom

This paper provides an overview of categorical and gradient effects in islands, with a focus on English, and argues that most islands are gradient. In some cases, the island is circumvented by the construction type in which the extraction takes place, and there is growing evidence that the critical...