Subject advantage in covert dependencies: the case of wh-questions comprehension in French Sign Language.

TitleSubject advantage in covert dependencies: the case of wh-questions comprehension in French Sign Language.
Publication TypeArticle de revue
Année de publication2022
AuthorsDonati, Caterina, Charlotte Hauser, and Valentina Aristodemo
JournalSyntax
Abstract

Languages of the world vary with respect to the position in which wh-expressions are

displayed in content questions. In some languages they are typically dislocated in a peripheral

position, while in others they are left in situ, and some languages allow for both options. Studies

on sentence-processing have shown that, as all A-bar dependencies, content questions involving

wh-movement display a subject advantage, but very little is known about wh-in situ questions. The

aim of this paper is to fill in this gap and explore whether a subject advantage can be found in

wh-in situ questions. It reports the results of a sentence-to-picture matching task with in situ whquestions

in French Sign Language (LSF). Three adult populations with different age of exposure

to sign language are included: native signers, early signers and late signers. Results show that

comprehension of wh-in situ questions in LSF displays a subject advantage. This result is argued

to be relevant for the analysis of wh-in situ, supporting a covert movement analysis against alternatives

involving some instance of (unselective) binding. Moreover, comparison across populations

show that delayed exposure to language has an impact on the comprehension of wh-questions,

confirming that the effects of early language deprivation affect language competence in adulthood.