Mandarin Chinese -in-situ argument-adjunct asymmetry in island sensitivity: Evidence from a formal judgment study.

Unlike adjunct -in-situ, argument -in-situ do not seem to be subject to island constraints in Chinese and other East Asian languages. This difference in island sensitivity between argument and adjunct -in-situ is known as argument-adjunct asymmetry in the theoretical literature. Recently, this long-established asymmetry is challenged by a formal judgment study. It was claimed in the study that this asymmetry is an illusion and both argument and adjunct -in-situ are subject to island constraints. The present study demonstrates that such a claim is not convincing because it is based on problematic experimental design. We designed two experiments to test the island effects on Chinese -in-situ. The results reaffirm that the argument-adjunct asymmetry in Chinese -in-situ is indeed present, contrary to the findings of previous formal judgment study, and they also corroborate our assumption that when object -in-situ like 'what' are located inside a relative clause, they are subject to a pragmatic constraint, suggesting that the VP (formed by a verb and its wh-object) in the relative clause tends to describe the prominent/salient feature of the relativized nominal head.