Resumptive pronouns, structural complexity, and the elusive distinction between grammar and performance: Evidence from Cantonese

•We examine the acceptability and production of resumptive pronouns in Cantonese.•Resumptive pronoun use in relative clauses increases with structural complexity.•Resumptive pronouns were used more often in object position than subject position.•Resumptive pronoun use was not obligatory in a proposed adjunct island context.•Results challenge traditional notions of the competence-performance distinction.

The use of resumptive pronouns in relative clauses appears to be governed by structural complexity in grammar and usage. Resumptive pronoun distributions across languages typically follow the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (Keenan and Comrie, 1977): if the grammar allows resumptive pronouns in one position, it also allows them in more deeply embedded positions. Hawkins (2004) predicts a parallel effect in usage: when the grammar permits the option of either resumptive pronoun or gap, resumptive pronouns should be used more often as structural complexity increases. Results of two experiments, an elicited production task and an acceptability judgment task, affirm Hawkins’ prediction for Cantonese: resumptive pronouns were used more often and rated as more acceptable as the complexity of the relative clause increased from subject to direct object to coverb object and from non-possessive to possessive. Furthermore, resumptive pronoun use was apparently not governed by any categorical grammatical constraints on filler-gap dependencies. Resumptive pronouns were sometimes omitted in coverb object relatives, contrary to a proposed adjunct island condition. Implications for theories of grammatical competence are considered.