That-trace effect

Definition
That-trace effect is 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 ]]]

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics