Intervention effects in relative pronoun pied-piping: experimental evidence

Abstract

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.