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that-trace effect

SYNTAX: the phenomenon that the complementizer (that) cannot be followed by a trace (except in relative clauses) in some languages (e.g. English). Thus, in languages showing the that-t(race) effect, a subject cannot be extracted when it follows that. This is shown by the contrast in (i) and (ii).

(i)     who did you think [CP t' [C' e [IP t would win ]]]
(ii)   *who did you think [CP t' [C' that [IP t would win ]]]
As noted, the that-t effect is not a universal phenomenon. It is absent in e.g. Dutch, as shown by the fact that the Dutch translation of (ii) is grammatical:
(iii)	wie denk je [CP t' [C' dat [IP t gewonnen heeft ]]]

LIT. Chomsky, N. (1986b)
Chomsky, N. (1981)
Chomsky, N. & H. Lasnik (1977)
Kayne, R. (1984)
Perlmutter, D. (1971)
Pesetsky, D. (1982)
Taraldsen, T. (1978)