Dave Kush
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 796026 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Dave Kush |
| NOMBRES | Dave |
| APELLIDO | Kush |
| FIRMA | KUSH D |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2567-6440 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 15 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 62 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 15 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2015 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Acquiring constraints on filler-gap dependencies from structural collocations
Children induce complex syntactic knowledge from their native language input. A long-standing discussion focuses on types of learning biases that help them arrive at correct generalization and solve induction problems posed by impoverished input. Studies employing computational models for learning specific language phenomena serve as testing grounds for evaluating types of biases required for successful acquisition. Recent work by Pearl & Sprouse…
Learning filler-gap dependencies with neural language models
Human linguistic input is often claimed to be impoverished with respect to linguistic evidence for complex structural generalizations that children induce. The field of language acquisition is currently debating the ability of various learning algorithms to accurately derive target generalizations from the input. A growing body of research explores whether Neural Language Models (NLMs) can induce human-like generalizations about filler-gap depend…
A translation-matched, experimental comparison of three types of wh-island effects in Spanish and English
According to the historical empirical consensus in the field, wh-argument extraction from embedded wh-questions gives rise to island effects in English, but not in Spanish. This observation – which was important for the development of a parameters-based theory of cross-linguistic variation in islands – has recently been challenged by experimental studies showing wh-island effects in both languages. However, these studies typically employ differen…
Verb placement in L3 French and L3 German
This article explores cross-linguistic influence and the relationship between surface structure and underlying syntactic structure in L3 acquisition of verb placement in L1 Norwegian L2 English learners of L3 German or French, respectively. In these languages, verb placement varies systematically. Previous research has found transfer from both L1 and L2 in similar language combinations. Using an acceptability judgment task, we tested verb placeme…
Filler–gap dependencies and islands in L2 English production
Embedded questions (EQs) are islands for filler–gap dependency formation in English, but not in Norwegian. Kush and Dahl (2022) found that first language (L1) Norwegian participants often accepted filler–gap dependencies into EQs in second language (L2) English, and proposed that this reflected persistent transfer from Norwegian of the functional structure that licenses such filler–gap dependencies. However, their results do not conclusively esta…
Comparing Island Effects for Different Dependency Types in Norwegian
Recent research suggests that island effects may vary as a function of dependency type, potentially challenging accounts that treat island effects as reflecting uniform constraints on all filler-gap dependency formation. Some authors argue that cross-dependency variation is more readily accounted for by discourse-functional constraints that take into account the discourse status of both the filler and the constituent containing the gap. We ran a …
Spanish embedded question island effects revisited
It is often reported that embedded questions (EQs) are not syntactic islands in Spanish. However, some authors have observed that the acceptability of filler-gap dependencies (FGDs) into Spanish EQs varies with the EQ-embedding verb: FGDs into EQs underresponsiveverbs (e.g.,know) do not result in island effects, but FGDs into EQs underrogativeverbs (e.g.,ask) do yield island effects. One account attributes the contrast to a structural difference …
Learning Island-insensitivity from the input
Norwegian allows filler-gap dependencies into relative clauses (RCs) and embedded questions (EQs) – domains that are usually considered islands in other languages. We conducted a corpus study on youth-directed reading material to assess what direct evidence Norwegian children receive for filler-gap dependencies into islands. Results suggest that the input contains examples of filler-gap dependencies into both RCs and EQs, but the examples are sig…
Learning embedded verb placement in Norwegian
This article investigates how children acquire word order generalizations from ambiguous and infrequent input. We focus on verb placement in Norwegian relative and complement clauses. In two elicitation experiments we explore where children (age 3–7) place verbs in three embedded clauses types: one requiring a purely syntactic generalization and two requiring a semantic-pragmatic generalization. We find that children overgeneralize the main claus…
Principle B constrains the processing of cataphora
We tested whether comprehenders can use Binding Principle B (Chomsky, 1981) to guide antecedent search during the processing of cataphoric pronouns. We ran two self-paced reading experiments using the gender mismatch paradigm (van Gompel & Liversedge, 2003) as an index of active prediction of coreference between a cataphor and a main clause subject. In both experiments, we find gender mismatch effects at the main clause subject when coreference w…
Variation in adjunct islands
Finite adjunct clauses are often assumed to be among the strongest islands for filler–gap dependency creation cross-linguistically, but Kush, Lohndal & Sprouse (2019) found experimental evidence suggesting that finite conditional om -adjunct clauses are not islands for topicalization in Norwegian. To investigate the generality of these findings, we ran three acceptability judgment experiments testing topicalization out of three adjunct clause typ…
L2 transfer of L1 island-insensitivity
Norwegian allows filler-gap dependencies into embedded questions, which are islands for filler-gap dependency formation in English. We ask whether there is evidence that Norwegian learners of English transfer the functional structure that permits island violations from their first language (L1) to their second language (L2). In two acceptability judgment studies, we find that Norwegians are more likely to accept ‘island-violating’ filler-gap depe…
On the Island Sensitivity of Topicalization in Norwegian
Mainland Scandinavian languages have been reported to allow movement from embedded questions, relative clauses, and complex NPs-domains commonly considered to be islands crosslinguistically. Yet in formal acceptability studies Scandinavian participants often show ‘island effects’: they reject island-violating movement similarly to native speakers of ‘island-sensitive’ languages. To investigate this apparent mismatch between informal and formal ju…
Investigating variation in island effects
"Reanalysis" Is Raising to Object
We propose a Case-driven account of the "reanalysis" operation assumed by some researchers to underlie pseudopassivization. Contra previous analyses, we argue that reanalyzed prepositions do not form a unit with the verb at any level of representation. Rather, reanalyzed prepositions raise to a v/V-medial Agr head, and the complement of the preposition raises to the specifier of this complex head to receive Case. This places the erstwhile complem…
On the Island Sensitivity of Topicalization in Norwegian
Mainland Scandinavian languages have been reported to allow movement from embedded questions, relative clauses, and complex NPs-domains commonly considered to be islands crosslinguistically. Yet in formal acceptability studies Scandinavian participants often show ‘island effects’: they reject island-violating movement similarly to native speakers of ‘island-sensitive’ languages. To investigate this apparent mismatch between informal and formal ju…
Investigating variation in island effects
L2 transfer of L1 island-insensitivity
Norwegian allows filler-gap dependencies into embedded questions, which are islands for filler-gap dependency formation in English. We ask whether there is evidence that Norwegian learners of English transfer the functional structure that permits island violations from their first language (L1) to their second language (L2). In two acceptability judgment studies, we find that Norwegians are more likely to accept ‘island-violating’ filler-gap depe…
Comparing Island Effects for Different Dependency Types in Norwegian
Recent research suggests that island effects may vary as a function of dependency type, potentially challenging accounts that treat island effects as reflecting uniform constraints on all filler-gap dependency formation. Some authors argue that cross-dependency variation is more readily accounted for by discourse-functional constraints that take into account the discourse status of both the filler and the constituent containing the gap. We ran a …
Spanish embedded question island effects revisited
It is often reported that embedded questions (EQs) are not syntactic islands in Spanish. However, some authors have observed that the acceptability of filler-gap dependencies (FGDs) into Spanish EQs varies with the EQ-embedding verb: FGDs into EQs underresponsiveverbs (e.g.,know) do not result in island effects, but FGDs into EQs underrogativeverbs (e.g.,ask) do yield island effects. One account attributes the contrast to a structural difference …
"Reanalysis" Is Raising to Object
We propose a Case-driven account of the "reanalysis" operation assumed by some researchers to underlie pseudopassivization. Contra previous analyses, we argue that reanalyzed prepositions do not form a unit with the verb at any level of representation. Rather, reanalyzed prepositions raise to a v/V-medial Agr head, and the complement of the preposition raises to the specifier of this complex head to receive Case. This places the erstwhile complem…
Investigating variation in island effects
On the Island Sensitivity of Topicalization in Norwegian
Mainland Scandinavian languages have been reported to allow movement from embedded questions, relative clauses, and complex NPs-domains commonly considered to be islands crosslinguistically. Yet in formal acceptability studies Scandinavian participants often show ‘island effects’: they reject island-violating movement similarly to native speakers of ‘island-sensitive’ languages. To investigate this apparent mismatch between informal and formal ju…
L2 transfer of L1 island-insensitivity
Norwegian allows filler-gap dependencies into embedded questions, which are islands for filler-gap dependency formation in English. We ask whether there is evidence that Norwegian learners of English transfer the functional structure that permits island violations from their first language (L1) to their second language (L2). In two acceptability judgment studies, we find that Norwegians are more likely to accept ‘island-violating’ filler-gap depe…
Learning Island-insensitivity from the input
Norwegian allows filler-gap dependencies into relative clauses (RCs) and embedded questions (EQs) – domains that are usually considered islands in other languages. We conducted a corpus study on youth-directed reading material to assess what direct evidence Norwegian children receive for filler-gap dependencies into islands. Results suggest that the input contains examples of filler-gap dependencies into both RCs and EQs, but the examples are sig…
Learning embedded verb placement in Norwegian
This article investigates how children acquire word order generalizations from ambiguous and infrequent input. We focus on verb placement in Norwegian relative and complement clauses. In two elicitation experiments we explore where children (age 3–7) place verbs in three embedded clauses types: one requiring a purely syntactic generalization and two requiring a semantic-pragmatic generalization. We find that children overgeneralize the main claus…
Principle B constrains the processing of cataphora
We tested whether comprehenders can use Binding Principle B (Chomsky, 1981) to guide antecedent search during the processing of cataphoric pronouns. We ran two self-paced reading experiments using the gender mismatch paradigm (van Gompel & Liversedge, 2003) as an index of active prediction of coreference between a cataphor and a main clause subject. In both experiments, we find gender mismatch effects at the main clause subject when coreference w…
Variation in adjunct islands
Finite adjunct clauses are often assumed to be among the strongest islands for filler–gap dependency creation cross-linguistically, but Kush, Lohndal & Sprouse (2019) found experimental evidence suggesting that finite conditional om -adjunct clauses are not islands for topicalization in Norwegian. To investigate the generality of these findings, we ran three acceptability judgment experiments testing topicalization out of three adjunct clause typ…
Comparing Island Effects for Different Dependency Types in Norwegian
Recent research suggests that island effects may vary as a function of dependency type, potentially challenging accounts that treat island effects as reflecting uniform constraints on all filler-gap dependency formation. Some authors argue that cross-dependency variation is more readily accounted for by discourse-functional constraints that take into account the discourse status of both the filler and the constituent containing the gap. We ran a …
Spanish embedded question island effects revisited
It is often reported that embedded questions (EQs) are not syntactic islands in Spanish. However, some authors have observed that the acceptability of filler-gap dependencies (FGDs) into Spanish EQs varies with the EQ-embedding verb: FGDs into EQs underresponsiveverbs (e.g.,know) do not result in island effects, but FGDs into EQs underrogativeverbs (e.g.,ask) do yield island effects. One account attributes the contrast to a structural difference …
Verb placement in L3 French and L3 German
This article explores cross-linguistic influence and the relationship between surface structure and underlying syntactic structure in L3 acquisition of verb placement in L1 Norwegian L2 English learners of L3 German or French, respectively. In these languages, verb placement varies systematically. Previous research has found transfer from both L1 and L2 in similar language combinations. Using an acceptability judgment task, we tested verb placeme…
Filler–gap dependencies and islands in L2 English production
Embedded questions (EQs) are islands for filler–gap dependency formation in English, but not in Norwegian. Kush and Dahl (2022) found that first language (L1) Norwegian participants often accepted filler–gap dependencies into EQs in second language (L2) English, and proposed that this reflected persistent transfer from Norwegian of the functional structure that licenses such filler–gap dependencies. However, their results do not conclusively esta…
A translation-matched, experimental comparison of three types of wh-island effects in Spanish and English
According to the historical empirical consensus in the field, wh-argument extraction from embedded wh-questions gives rise to island effects in English, but not in Spanish. This observation – which was important for the development of a parameters-based theory of cross-linguistic variation in islands – has recently been challenged by experimental studies showing wh-island effects in both languages. However, these studies typically employ differen…
Learning filler-gap dependencies with neural language models
Human linguistic input is often claimed to be impoverished with respect to linguistic evidence for complex structural generalizations that children induce. The field of language acquisition is currently debating the ability of various learning algorithms to accurately derive target generalizations from the input. A growing body of research explores whether Neural Language Models (NLMs) can induce human-like generalizations about filler-gap depend…
Acquiring constraints on filler-gap dependencies from structural collocations
Children induce complex syntactic knowledge from their native language input. A long-standing discussion focuses on types of learning biases that help them arrive at correct generalization and solve induction problems posed by impoverished input. Studies employing computational models for learning specific language phenomena serve as testing grounds for evaluating types of biases required for successful acquisition. Recent work by Pearl & Sprouse…
Computer Science (13 obras) · Linguistics (13 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (12 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (11 obras) · Psychology (10 obras) · Norwegian (9 obras) · Philosophy (9 obras) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (8 obras) · Natural language processing (7 obras) · Mathematics (6 obras)