Empty or non-empty site? Evidence from the acquisition of Najdi Arabic sluicing

Abstract

Abstract Sluicing—a clausal ellipsis in which the only pronounced part of a question is the wh-phrase—has been controversial since its emergence (Ross, 1969). I address herein the existence and nature of the ellipsis site’s content with an experimental argument from the field of first language acquisition. Using intervention effects as a diagnostic of movement, this study examines whether Najdi Arabic (NA)-speaking children show a subject advantage in sluicing and whether a mismatch in animacy features aids their interpretation of object sluices. A yes/no question task was conducted with 48 NA-speaking children. The results revealed that NA-speaking children exhibit a statistically significant subject advantage, although economy considerations constrain when this subject advantage emerges. Yet, no effect of mismatching animacy was found. Regardless, the results argue in favour of the structural-movement analysis of sluicing. This study contributes to the persistent debate on ellipsis site content by providing an experimental argument that relies on data from the acquisition of sluicing in NA.