A Concreteness Effect in Morphosyntactic Variation: Evidence from the variation in the choice of Clausal Complements in Serbian
A Concreteness Effect in Morphosyntactic Variation: Evidence from the variation in the choice of Clausal Complements in Serbian

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents findings on the concreteness effect observed in the selection of clausal complements in Serbian. While concreteness effects have predominantly been explored in the realm of word processing, this study contributes to a limited body of research demonstrating its influence on morphosyntax. The present research investigates how the concreteness of the subject influences the choice of clausal complement forms in Serbian. Specifically, we find that infinitival complements are preferred with abstract subjects, while finite complements are more natural with concrete subjects. We suggest an explanation of this phenomenon in terms of a sort of concreteness harmony, which could be derived from the previously observed contextual sensitivity associated with the concreteness effect. Linguistically, the study furnishes evidence for the concreteness of the subject noun phrase as a determinant factor affecting the choice between infinitives and finite clausal complements in Serbian.

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