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The Syntax of Relativization

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The Syntax of Relativization The Syntax of Relativization Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Trans 10 fax: +31 30 253 6000 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.let.uu.nl/LOT/ ISBN 90-76864-14-4 NUGI 941 Copyright © 2002 by Mark de Vries. All rights reserved. Contents Preface .....................................................................................................................IX Chapter 1 Introduction........................................................................................ 1 1. Preamble: the problem of the pivot....................................................................... 1 2. Goals and contents of this thesis........................................................................... 3 2.1. Objectives..................................................................................................... 3 2.2. Overview ...................................................................................................... 4 3. The theory of grammar ......................................................................................... 6 2.1. Phrase structure ............................................................................................ 6 2.2. Movement and features ................................................................................ 8 Part A Relative constructions: typology and theory........................ 11 Chapter 2 A typology of relative constructions ............................................... 13 1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 13 2. Overview: definitions, examples, and parametric freedom................................. 13 2.1. The definition of ‘relative construction’..................................................... 14 2.2. Examples of important relative clause types .............................................. 15 2.3. Parametric freedom .................................................................................... 17 2.4. Syntactic main types of relatives................................................................ 20 2.5. Terminological remarks.............................................................................. 20 3. On the semantics of relative clauses: Grosu & Landman’s scale........................ 23 4. Lehmann’s functional classification of relative constructions............................ 29 5. Downing’s universals and general implications ................................................. 34 6. Special types of relative clauses.......................................................................... 40 6.1. Correlatives ................................................................................................ 40 6.2. Circumnominal relatives............................................................................ 41 6.3. Free relatives.............................................................................................. 42 6.3.1. Types and properties of free relatives ............................................. 42 6.3.2. The transition between free relatives of the postnominal type, correlatives, and circumnominal relatives....................................... 46 6.3.3. A systematic classification of free relatives .................................... 50 6.4. Adverbial relatives...................................................................................... 55 6.5. Non-finite relatives..................................................................................... 58 6.6. Cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences ................................................................ 61 7. Aspects of the relative construction.................................................................... 62 7.1. Relative pronouns and particles.................................................................. 62 7.2. The position of the external determiner...................................................... 63 7.3. Recursive and linear multiple embedding .................................................. 64 IV CONTENTS 7.4. Pied piping and preposition stranding ........................................................ 64 7.5. Extraposition .............................................................................................. 65 7.6. Multiple relativization ................................................................................ 66 8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 3 Towards the syntax of relativization .............................................. 69 1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 69 2. General discussion .............................................................................................. 70 2.1. The historical development of the theory on the syntax of relativization... 70 2.2. The D-complement hypothesis................................................................... 74 2.3. The raising analysis of relative clauses ...................................................... 76 2.3.1. Circumnominal relatives................................................................. 77 2.3.2. The pivot function of the head noun ............................................... 77 2.3.3. Collocations..................................................................................... 78 2.3.4. Binding facts................................................................................... 80 2.4. Conclusion.................................................................................................. 82 3. The standard analysis versus the promotion theory ............................................ 83 3.1. Outline of the different analyses................................................................. 83 3.1.1. The old standard theory................................................................... 84 3.1.2. The revised standard theory ............................................................ 84 3.1.3. The revised raising analysis ............................................................ 85 3.1.4. The promotion theory...................................................................... 86 3.1.5. The antisymmetric promotion theory.............................................. 86 3.2. Evaluation: syntactic main types and word order....................................... 86 3.2.1. Preliminaries: phrase structure rules and underlying orders............ 87 3.2.2. The derivation of relative constructions in VO languages .............. 91 3.2.3. The derivation of relative constructions in OV languages .............. 96 3.2.4. Summary and conclusion ................................................................ 99 3.3. Evaluation: the relation between the antecedent and the gap ................... 105 3.4. Summary .................................................................................................. 109 4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 109 Chapter 4 The promotion theory of relative constructions .......................... 111 1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 111 2. The promotion theory: previous scholarship..................................................... 111 2.1. Kayne’s (1994) analysis and Borsley’s (1997) criticism.......................... 111 2.2. Bianchi (1999/2000a) ............................................................................... 114 3. Postnominal relatives........................................................................................ 116 3.1. Wh-movement.......................................................................................... 116 3.2. Case and agreement.................................................................................. 118 3.3. The relation between N and D.................................................................. 119 3.4. A detailed derivation of postnominal restrictive relatives ........................ 123 3.5. ‘That’-relatives ......................................................................................... 126 3.6. Word order variation ................................................................................ 127 3.7. Conclusion................................................................................................ 130 4. Prenominal relatives......................................................................................... 131 CONTENTS V 5. Circumnominal relatives................................................................................... 135 5.1. Introduction and properties....................................................................... 136 5.2. Historical developments concerning the analysis..................................... 137 5.3. The derivation of circumnominal relatives............................................... 138 5.4. Additional issues ...................................................................................... 141 5.4.1. The indefiniteness effect ............................................................... 141 5.4.2. Verbs and morphology.................................................................. 141 5.4.3. Nominalization and cross-linguistic generalizations..................... 142 5.4.4. Internal head movement...............................................................
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