Exploring syntactic and semantic acceptability: A case study on semantic restriction violations and aspectual mismatches

This study explores the interplay between syntax and semantics in affecting sentence acceptability. Two rating tasks, a syntactic and a semantic (plausibility/meaningfulness) one, are compared across four phenomena: semantic restriction violations, aspectual mismatches with for-PPs, resumptive pronouns, and semantic contradictions. Anchor items provide calibration across a spectrum of grammaticality and plausibility. Results show cross-contamination between the tasks: semantic anomalies reduce syntactic acceptability, and syntactic anomalies reduce semantic plausibility. The findings further substantiate the notion that the border between syntax and semantics is not clear-cut and that the interface between the two is complex.