Data at the grammar-pragmatics interface: the case of resumptive pronouns in English

This paper explores the relation of grammaticality to acceptability through a discussion of the use of resumptive pronouns in spoken English. It is argued that undergeneration by some grammar of observed linguistic phenomena such as these is as serious a problem for theoretical frameworks as overgeneration, and that it has consequences for the way in which grammaticality and acceptability are to be construed. Using the framework of Dynamic Syntax, a theoretical account of relative clauses and anaphora construal is provided from which the use of resumptive pronouns in English emerges as a natural consequence. The fact that examples are considered by native speakers to be unacceptable in neutral contexts is argued to follow from pragmatic effects, explicable from a Relevance Theoretic perspective.