Quantifying weak and strong crossover for wh-crossover and proper names

Abstract

Despite the status of crossover phenomena as key data in the theoretical study of pronominal syntax/semantics, crossover structures have been subjected to relatively littleexperimental testing. We investigate 'wh'-crossover, quantificational crossover, and analogous structures involving proper name cataphora in behavioral rating studies, deploying a novel experimental paradigm which contrasts the acceptability of multiple readings of a target sentence. Using this more sensitive experimental task, our results favour an acceptability distinction between weak and strong 'wh'-crossover, and provide a baseline against which to compare more controversial cases of crossover. We further find that proper name cataphora display a remarkably similar crossover effect, including a distinction between “strong” and “weak” cases.