ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we present an overview of how experimental data have been used in the building of our knowledge about syntax, that is, not only to validate formal hypotheses within grammatical theories but also to illuminate the comprehension of how syntax works in our cognitive system. Although the types of data available are very diverse, ranging from informal grammaticality judgments to a wide variety of findings obtained through offline and online paradigms, we pay special attention to evidence from psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies on syntactic processing. We summarize the main findings in both production and comprehension domains, emphasizing the importance of cross-linguistic research. Focusing on some core problems and current issues in the field, we review the fundamental contributions from studies of formal acceptability judgments, eye-tracking and pupillometry, electrophysiology, and hemodynamic techniques. Topics include locality constraints (long distance dependencies and islands), structural ambiguity and co-reference, among others.
