Investigating “wanna” contraction through an emergentist approach among Iranian EFL learners applying usage-based model of language acquisition

•The phenomenon of want-to contractions depends on the adjacency conditions of want and to in different conditions.•EFL learners generously accept want to contractions in both object and subject extraction questions.•EFL learners use want to contractions in object as well as subject extraction questions in their productions.

In this study, we followed an emergentist view on the acceptability of “want to” contraction in both comprehension and production of Subject Extraction Question (SEQ) and Object Extraction Question (OEQ). Earlier experimental work (e.g. Bailes, 2000) showed that such a contrast is not robust for EFL learners. To study this hypothesis, one hundred EFL learners were randomly chosen among advanced EFL students. They were given two types of tests. One was a grammaticality judgment test, and the other was an elicited production test. The results showed that EFL learners had a propensity to contract “want to” both in OEQ and SEQ wherever want and to were adjacent.