Topicalization out of English and Mandarin if-clauses and that-clauses

There are three main approaches to the (un)acceptability of long-distance dependencies (LDD): syntactic theories, processing theories, and discourse theories. Syntactic theories argue that constraints on LDD are universal and purely syntactic, predicting that these constraints should hold across languages and constructions. This study investigates the acceptability of topicalization from English and Mandarin if-clauses and that-clauses through a contextualised acceptability-judgement experiment. The findings reveal no adjunct island effect in either language, supporting the discourse approach, which argues that the discourse status of the extracted element within the construction is crucial. Specifically, the focus status of the extracted element depends on the construction itself. If there is a conflict between the focus status of the element and the construction, an acceptability penalty emerges.