Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation
Grammatical variation has often been said to be determined by cognitive complexity. Whenever they have the choice between two variants, speakers will use that form that is associated with less processing effort on the hearer’s side. The majority of studies putting forth this or similar analyses of g...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-05-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/89 |
| _version_ | 1797533713926455296 |
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| author | Christine Günther |
| author_facet | Christine Günther |
| author_sort | Christine Günther |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Grammatical variation has often been said to be determined by cognitive complexity. Whenever they have the choice between two variants, speakers will use that form that is associated with less processing effort on the hearer’s side. The majority of studies putting forth this or similar analyses of grammatical variation are based on corpus data. Analyzing preposition stranding vs. pied-piping in English, this paper sets out to put the processing-based hypotheses to the test. It focuses on discontinuous prepositional phrases as opposed to their continuous counterparts in an online and an offline experiment. While pied-piping, the variant with a continuous PP, facilitates reading at the <i>wh</i>-element in restrictive relative clauses, a stranded preposition facilitates reading at the right boundary of the relative clause. Stranding is the preferred option in the same contexts. The heterogenous results underline the need for research on grammatical variation from various perspectives. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T11:19:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e8ffda22f3e54867a80fb42d20d55155 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T11:19:31Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-e8ffda22f3e54867a80fb42d20d551552023-11-21T20:10:58ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2021-05-01628910.3390/languages6020089Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical VariationChristine Günther0Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Universität Siegen, 57076 Siegen, GermanyGrammatical variation has often been said to be determined by cognitive complexity. Whenever they have the choice between two variants, speakers will use that form that is associated with less processing effort on the hearer’s side. The majority of studies putting forth this or similar analyses of grammatical variation are based on corpus data. Analyzing preposition stranding vs. pied-piping in English, this paper sets out to put the processing-based hypotheses to the test. It focuses on discontinuous prepositional phrases as opposed to their continuous counterparts in an online and an offline experiment. While pied-piping, the variant with a continuous PP, facilitates reading at the <i>wh</i>-element in restrictive relative clauses, a stranded preposition facilitates reading at the right boundary of the relative clause. Stranding is the preferred option in the same contexts. The heterogenous results underline the need for research on grammatical variation from various perspectives.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/89grammatical variationcomplexitypreposition strandingdiscontinuous constituents |
| spellingShingle | Christine Günther Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation Languages grammatical variation complexity preposition stranding discontinuous constituents |
| title | Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation |
| title_full | Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation |
| title_fullStr | Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation |
| title_short | Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation |
| title_sort | preposition stranding vs pied piping the role of cognitive complexity in grammatical variation |
| topic | grammatical variation complexity preposition stranding discontinuous constituents |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/2/89 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christinegunther prepositionstrandingvspiedpipingtheroleofcognitivecomplexityingrammaticalvariation |