Intervention effects in relative pronoun pied piping: experimental evidence
This paper contributes experimental evidence regarding the question of how relative pronouns are interpreted in English non restrictive relative clauses with relative pronoun pied piping (RPPP) Kotek and Erlewine (2015) and Erlewine and Kotek (to appear b) claim that the wh relative pronoun is sensitive to intervention effects inside its pied piping constituent (cf Sauerland and Heck 2003, Cable 2010, Kotek and Erlewine to appear) In this paper we present the results of a web based grammaticality judgment survey which supports this claim. We discuss the nature of the intervention judgment, which is notoriously subtle, and how it might be modeled in grammar. The sensitivity of RPPP to intervention effects has important implications for the formal analysis of English non restrictive relative clauses, supporting the view that relative pronouns are interpreted in situ without covert movement out of its pied piping.