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Extraction restriction in Tagalog
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Description: In Tagalog, the received generalization of the extraction restriction is that only the argument that is cross-referenced by voice is eligible for A-bar movement. However, others have observed that for some speakers, agents are eligible for A-bar movement, irrespective of voice. In the present study, we provide naturally occurring data, along with experimental evidence, consistent with a more permissive picture of the restriction. We also present computational evidence that participants were treating agent-extractions not cross-referenced by voice categorically, that is, they were either accepting or rejecting them in any given trial. Thus, we identify a piece of grammatical knowledge (i.e., extraction) that is systematic within an individual speaker but varies unpredictably across a population of Tagalog speakers. In other words, there are two separable types of Tagalog speakers with respect to extraction. We propose that this is a form of grammar competition that arises via the idea that the agent-first bias affects how child learners parse input strings under noisy conditions during acquisition.