1 in Defense of Covert A-Movement: Backward Raising and Beyond Maria Polinsky Harvard University Workshop on Diagnostics in Synt
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In defense of covert A-movement: 2 True covert A-movement: Backward Raising in Adyghe Backward raising and beyond Adyghe (Circassian): NW Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adyghean) language, spoken in Maria Polinsky the south of Russia and Turkey Harvard University Workshop on Diagnostics in Syntax (1) NW Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adyghean) family Leiden and Utrecht, January 29-31, 2009 Vo Circass- Abkhaz- Ubykh ian Abazin 1 Introduction 1 1 Kabardian Adyghe Abkhaz Abaza GOAL OF THIS TALK: present and analyze evidence for covert A-movement; head-final, extremely free surface word order, with a difference between root present arguments and diagnostics for distinguishing Agree and covert and embedded clauses (embedded clauses have to be verb-final); pro-drop movement morphological cases (case marking fused with the determiner): ergative (-m), MAIN QUESTIONS: absolutive (-r), generalized oblique; other relations expressed by PPs; no • Should all phenomena where a constituent appears to have been “covertly quirky cases (see Rogava and Keraševa 1966; Smeets 1984) displaced” to a higher position receive a unified analysis? • Specifically, should they all be accounted for without movement, contra rich agreement with the absolutive (ABS) and ergative (ERG) in person and earlier movement-based analyses? number; prefixal agreement: slots for each of these DPs, agreement in number+person; ANSWERS AS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE: suffixal agreemen: agreement with ABS only, only in number These phenomena should receive a unified analysis 2.1 raising verbs These phenomena should be accounted for without movement due to the relevant predicates: HWEn ‘become, turn out to’, qEBeB’En ‘happen to’, S’Et ‘be assumption that Agree is sufficient to account for what was earlier likely to’, feZen ‘begin’, wExEn ‘stop, be over’, wEblen ‘start, begin’ associated with covert movement (Chomsky 2000, etc.) ANSWERS AS PROPOSED HERE: (2) [axe-me pjEsme-r a-txE-new] feZa-R-ex 3PL-ERG letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP begin-PAST-PL These phenomena are distinct and should not all receive a unified analysis EMBEDDED AGENT LDA, AS ABS? ‘They began to write a letter.’ Some require a (covert A-)movement analysis, others a non-movement analysis Unusual: the agent of the embedded clause remains downstairs but determines what seems like Long-Distance Agreement in the matrix clause OUTLINE OF THE TALK • What is displaced is moved, or in support of covert A-movement: The verbs are unaccusative: do not assign a thematic role, allow idiom chunks to Backward Raising in Adyghe (section 2) raise, do not form imperatives • When Agree is good enough: Greek (section 3) • Diagnosing covert A-movement across languages (section 4) (3) expl WEC’E{E-new je-WEble-Ø • Conclusions and outstanding questions (section 5) be_cold-INF 3ABS-start-PRES ‘It starts getting cold.’ 1 Summary so far: an embedded argument, regardless of its case, determines Evidence for the biclausal structure: each clause can have independent temporal morphological agreement on the matrix verb as if it were absolutive specification and separate negation; NPI can be licensed in the lower or higher clause; double relativization (see Polinsky and Potsdam 2005) (8) Analytical possibilities: a. Long-distance agreement (4) a. [maSjEne-r depq-Em jeWe-new] TWe HWERe b. Backward Raising (covert A-movement) car-ABS wall-OBL hit-INF twice turned_out ‘The car twice turned out to hit the wall.’ (two separate occasions) LONG-DISTANCE AGREEMENT analysis—matrix clause has no representation of b. [maSjEne-r depq-Em TWe jeWe-new] HWERe the raised subject, agreement is determined by the DP in the embedded clause car-ABS wall-OBL twice hit-INF turned_out (9) _____________ Agree ____________ ‘The car turned out to hit the wall twice.’ ? ? (two hittings on one occasion) [axe-me pjEsme-r a-txE-new] qEBeB’E-R-ex 3PL-ERG letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP happen-PAST-PL (5) a. jELesEm EB’weV [ShwenC’Em-B’e Twe sE-we-new] ‘They happened to write a letter.’ this year gun-INSTR twice 1SG-shoot-SUP HWRe BACKWARD RAISING analysis—matrix clause contains a silent representation of turned out the raised subject, which determines agreement locally ‘This year I turned out to shoot my gun twice (in a row).’ (10) __ Agree __ b. jELesEm EB’weV [ShwenC’Em-B’e sE-we-new ] ? ? this year gun-INSTR 1SG-shoot-SUP [axe-me pjEsme-r a-txE-new] axe-r qEBeB’E-R-ex Twe HWRe 3PL-ERG letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP 3PL-ABS happen-PAST-PL twice turned out ‘They happened to write a letter.’ ‘This year there were two times that I turned out to shoot my gun.’ Evidence for raising: no imperative formation, no selectional restrictions, 2.2 Arguments against Long-Distance Agreement and for Backward Raising preservation of idiomatic meanings 2.2.1 quirky agreement (6) a. E-pe hWEzE-r qErexE plural suffixal agreement is determined by the absolutive argument; exceptional 3SG.POSS-nose smoke-ABS blows quirky agreement has to be posited for the construction in question where the ‘S/He is furious.’ (lit.: smoke is coming out of his/her nose) agreement can be determined by the ergative DP or absolutive DP: b. [E-pe hWEzE-r qErexjE-new] qEBeB’ER/feZeR 3SG.POSS-nose smoke-ABS blow-SUP happened/began (11) ergative goal ‘S/He happened/began to be furious.’ _____________ Agree ____________ ? ? (7) a. gWES’E{e-m gWES’E{e qjELfE [axe-me pEsme-r a-txE-new] qEBeB’E-R-ex word-ERG word.ABS give_birth.PRES 3PL-ERG letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP happen-PAST-PL lit.: “Word gives birth to word.” ‘They happened to write a letter.’ ‘There are consequences to what one says.’ b. gWES’E{em gWES’E{e qELf-ew WEble-R word-ERG word.ABS give_birth-INF start-PAST lit. “Word started giving birth to word.” ‘What s.o. said began to have consequences.’ 2 (12) absolutive goal 2.2.3 silent copy of raised subject in matrix clause _____________ Agree ____________ ? ? Diagnostics: matrix scope of the lower subject; reflexive on the higher verb; [axe-r twe qEKeWEpBe-new ] qEBeB’E-R-ex emphatic depictive (only in some dialects); variable binding 3PL-ABS twice ask-SUP happen-PAST-PL ‘They happened to ask twice.’ scope with respect to matrix negation wide scope of the quantified DP which is downstairs (as apparent from its case), regardless of its linear position 2.2.2 subject in the lower clause (16) zeCeme zakonxe-r a-RecaCer-ep all.ERG laws-ABS 3PL.ERG-obey-NEG Diagnostics: the subject’s case is determined by the lower predicate (ERG if ‘Nobody obeys the law.’ (lit.: All do not obey laws) ALL > NEG transitive, ABS if intransitive); the subject is relativized with wh-agreement ‘Not everybody obeys the law.’ NEG > ALL (cf. O’Herin 2002: Ch. 8) (17) [zeCeme zakonxe-r a-mE-RecaCe-new] HWRe(-x) all.ERG laws-ABS 3.PL.ERG-NEG-obey-SUP turn out.PRES(-PL) case alternations related to the transitivity of embedded verb ‘Everybody turns out not to obey the law.’ ALL > NEG (13) a. [thape-xe-r pEzE-new] Q-xWER-ex %‘Not everybody turns out to obey the law.’ NEG > ALL leaf-PL-ABS fall-SUP 3ABS-began-3PL ‘(The) leaves began to fall.’ scope with respect to the raising verb: the DP in the lower clause can b. [axe-me se saS’e-new] Q-HWERe-x take wide scope over the matrix verb 3PL-ERG 1 SG.ABS lead-SUP 3SG.ABS-began-3PL.ABS (18) a. [aS’-zaqWE Wse-r E-txE-new] wExe-R ‘They began to lead me.’ 3SG.ERG-only poem-ABS 3SG.ERG-write-SUP stop-PAST ‘Only s/he stopped to write a poem.’ wh-agreement under relativization “It’s only her who stopped writing a poem.” ONLY > STOP (14) a. mE VEfE-m jE-maSjEne E-S’eZ’E-R ?? “It stopped being the case that she was the only one to write a poem.” this man-ERG 3SG.POSS-car 3SG.ERG-sell-PAST STOP > ONLY ‘This man sold his car.’ b. [Wse-r E-txE-new] ar-zaqWE wExe-R b. [zjE-maSjEne ec i zEi-S’eZ’E] VEfEi-r poem-ABS 3SG.ERG-write-SUP 3SG.ABS-only stop-PAST WH.POSS-car WH.ERG-sell man-ABS ‘Only s/he stopped to write a poem.’ ‘the man who sold his car’ “It’s only her who stopped writing a poem.” ONLY > STOP (15) a. [mE VEfE-m jE-maSjEne E-S’eZ’E-new] qEBeB’E-R ?? “It stopped being the case that she was the only one to write a poem.” this man-ERG 3SG.POSS-car 3ERG-sell-SUP happen-PAST STOP > ONLY ‘This man happened to sell his car.’ b. [[zjE-maSjEne ec i zE-S’eZ’E-new] Q-qEBeB’E] cEfE-r WH.POSS-car WH.ERG-sell-SUP WH.ABS-happen man-ABS reflexivization ‘the man that happened to sell his car’ matrix verb can show reflexive marking (only for feZen ‘begin’, wExEn ‘stop, c. ?[[jE-maSjEne E-S’eZ’E-new] Q-qEBeB’E] cEfE-r be over’, weblen ‘start, begin’) 3SG.POSS-car 3SG.ERG-sell-SUP WH.ABS-happen man-ABS ‘the man that happened to sell his car’ (19) axe-r [pEsme-r a-txE-new] zE-feZa-R-ex 3PL-ABS letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP REFL-begin-PAST-PL ‘They began to write a letter for themselves.’ b. [axe-me pjEsme-r a-txE-new] zE-feZa-R-ex 3PL-ERG letter-ABS 3PL.ERG-write-SUP REFL-begin-PAST-PL ‘They began to write a letter for themselves.’ 3 licensing of matrix quantifier (24) axe-r [axe-me pjEsme-r a-txE-new] qEBeB’E-R-ex (20)a.