Regulating Word Order in Modern Greek: Verb Initial and Non-Verb Initial Orders & the Conceptual-Intentional Interface

Regulating Word Order in Modern Greek: Verb Initial and non-Verb Initial orders & the Conceptual-Intentional Interface Thesis submitted to University College London in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Axiotis Kechagias Research Department of Linguistics University College London 2011 1 I, Axiotis Kechagias, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 To my family 3 ABSTRACT After I introduce the notions ‘configurational’, ‘discourse-configurational’, and the basics of the minimalist syntax, on the one hand, and notions relevant to information packaging, on the other hand (Chapter 1), in the following thee chapters I proceed to a detailed examination of the syntactic properties of verb-initial and non-verb initial orders, insisting on certain debated aspects. In particular, in Chapter 2, I compare the syntax of VSO and that of the ‘problematic’ VOS order; I show that what differentiates the two constructions is that the latter order is due to a flexible strategy in the narrow syntax that allows the object to pied-pipe alongside the verb to the TP domain. In Chapter 3, I discuss clitic doubling for which I put forward an alternative account involving feature copying that allows the same DP to occur in two positions in the structure at the same time. In this light, I further argue that clitic doubling is a parameterized version of A-movement. In Chapter 4, I deal with the properties of a range of constructions targeting the preverbal domain. I argue that the peculiar behaviour of CLLD is due to that it is the result of two operations, namely, A-movement in the form of clitic doubling and A-bar movement. I also show that non-focal LD is more productive than previously thought and that the construction involves mere A-bar movement. In the remaining two chapters I shift attention to issues related to the discourse-configurational nature of the language and information structure. After I discuss various models of integrating information structure into the minimalist grammar (Chapter 5), I argue that Information Structure can refer either to pragmatic articulations or more abstract logico-semantic strategies or both. Regarding the latter one, I show that Greek formally realizes via its word order two such strategies: a predicative and a non-predicative, the former 4 surfacing as non-Verb initial orders and the latter one surfacing as verb-initial orders. In the second half of Chapter 6, I deal with the interpretive effects of doubling. In particular, I argue that doubling in Greek invariably marks a DP as a topic. I also show that non-focal left dislocated DPs in Greek are fronted ground material that serves as an anchor for the introduction of new information into the discourse. Chapter 7 summarizes the major contributions of the current thesis. 5 Acknowledgments More often than not, writing a dissertation is a lonely work which requires a certain amount of seclusion, coming to terms with one’s own thoughts and doubts. At least that is my experience. Still, it is beyond doubt that it simply can’t be done without the support, advice and encouragement of others, teachers, friends and colleagues. Accordingly, I would like to use this opportunity to express my gratitude to a number of people who over the years have contributed in various ways to the completion of this work. First and foremost I want to express my gratitude to my supervisor Ad Neeleman. It has been an honour for me to be his Ph.D. student. He has taught me, both consciously and unconsciously, how good theoretical linguistics and syntax is done. I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, knowledge to make my Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating, but above all his support during tough times in the Ph.D. pursuit. I am also thankful to my secondary supervisor Hans van de Koot. His joy and enthusiasm was contagious and motivational for me. At several stages of my education in UCL, I have profited from discussions with other, teachers, fellow-students and colleagues, both in the Gordon Square- and Chandler House-era: Alison Hall, Beata Zackarska, Elena Titov, Harris Constantinou, Hiro Uchida, Ingrid Lossius Falkum, Ivona Kučerona, Kate Scott, Klaus Abels, Kriszta Szendrői, Luisa Martí, Matthew Reeve, Natalia Slioussar, Neil Smith, Nikos Velegrakis, Reiko Vermeulen, Robert Truswell, Thiago Galery. The group has been a source of friendships as well as good advice and collaboration. 6 Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people outside UCL who provided comments and support (either via e-mail or personally): Alexandra Galani, Artemis Alexiadou, Anna Roussou, Evi Sifaki, Dina Haidou, Dora Alexopoulou,, Marika Lekakou, Stavroula Tsiplakou, Stergios Chatzikirgiakidis, Vina Tsakali, and above all, my first teacher of linguistics, Tasos Tsangalidis for his invaluable advice and guidance. This thesis would not have been possible without the love and support of my friends in London and back in Greece despite the miles of geographical distance: Despina, Dimitra, Dimitris, Eleni, Evanthi, Fivos, Harris, Ilias, Kosmas, Koula, Vasiliki, Vaso. I’m grateful to life that you are my friends, guys. The famous last but not least is for my family. I wish to thank my family for everything: my father Ilias, my mother Tanoula, and my brother Dimitris. Thank you for your support, emotional and practical, and most importantly thank you for empowering me with strength and courage during tough times. This thesis is dedicated to you. This thesis was made possible by the financial support of the Hellenic Scholarships Foundation (IKY), which is hereby gratefully acknowledged. 7 CONTENTS Page A BSTRACT 04 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 06 CHAPTER 1: THE PUZZLE OF WORD ORDER 1. On Configurationality 12 2. The Minimalist Grammar 17 3. Information Structure 24 3.1 Preliminaries 24 3.2 The units of Information Structure 26 3.2.1 Given Information and New Information 28 3.2.2. Topic and Focus 31 4. Information Structure and Word Order in Greek 38 5. Defining the aims of the current thesis 41 CHAPTER 2: VERB INITIAL ORDERS 1. Preliminaries 42 1.1 Subjecthood and the ‘canonical’ VSO 42 1.2 A note on EPP 45 2. The controversial VOS 47 3. The data 52 3.1 Secondary Predication 52 3.2 Adverb Placement 63 3.3. Further Evidence 67 3.3.1 VOS and Anaphoric Binding 67 3.3.2 VOS and Scope 70 8 3.3.3 VOS and Pronominal Binding 72 3.4 Extensions 77 4. Summary 80 CHAPTER 3: CLITICS, DOUBLING AND A-MOVEMENT 1. Introduction 81 2. Clitics and Cliticisation: (Some of) the Puzzles 83 3. Clitic Doubling in Greek: The data 91 4. The Syntax of Clitic Doubling 97 4.1 Introducing the Schemata 97 4.2 Clitic Doubling Revisited 99 4.3 EPP and the T0 probe 112 4.4 Clitic Doubling as A-movement 118 4.5 Some Remarks on Previous Accounts 125 5. Summary 139 CHAPTER 4: NON VERB INITIAL ORDERS 1. Introduction 140 1.1 A note on the Greek Left Periphery 146 2. The syntax of CLLD 149 2.1 The current proposal 149 2.2 The A-bar properties 150 2.3 The A-properties and an explanation 159 2.3.1 Doubling 159 2.3.2 Anaphoric and Pronominal Binding 164 2.3.3 Weak Crossover 169 2.3.4 Parasitic Gaps 177 2.4 The existing literature 180 2.4.1 Dissociating CLLD and CD 180 2.4.2 Base generation analyses 184 9 2.4.3 Movement Analyses 190 3. (Non Focal) Left Dislocation 195 4. Summary 201 CHAPTER 5: INTEGRATING IS THEORY INTO THE GRAMMAR 1. Introduction 202 2. Formal View 205 2.1 The Cartographic model 205 3. Prosodic Models 210 3.1 Neeleman & Reinhart (1998) 211 3.2 Szendrői (2001) 214 4. Interpretive Models 218 4.1 Neeleman & van de Koot’s (2007) Templatic Model 218 4.2 Slioussar’s (2007) Relational Model 227 4. Summary 232 CHAPTER 6: THE SYNTAX-C/I INTERFACE: IS REVISITED 1. Preliminaries and Puzzles 233 2. Syntax and the C/I Interface Articulation 241 3. Applying the analysis to Greek 248 3.1 Non Verb Initial Orders 248 3.1.1 A Subject-Object Asymmetry 256 3.2 Verb initial orders 259 3.2.1 VOS Revisited 267 3.2.2 VOS is Marked 273 4. Extensions: The ‘Thetic’ vs. ‘Categorical’ Dichotomy 276 5. On Doubling, Topichood and Object Fronting 279 5.1 Topichood: CLLD and CD 280 5.2 Topic Fronting vs. Ground Fronting 290 5.2.1 The literature 291 10 5.2.2 The current view 300 6. Summary 305 CHAPTER 7: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 306 REFERENCES 309 11 CHAPTER 1: Word Order Puzzles Chapter 1 The Puzzle of Word Order 1. On Configurationality A common typological distinction amongst languages is that between ‘configurational’ and ‘non-configurational’. In a nutshell, the idea is that in the former group of languages the grammatical functions [subject] and [object] appear in a particular structural relationship to each other. English is the standard example of a configurational language, where the syntactic functions of subject and object can be by-and-large deduced from their position in the sentence. For instance in a sentence like the one in (1.1) below the preverbal DP can only be a subject while the postverbal DP is obligatorily interpreted as the object of the sentence; the reverse reading does not arise at all: (1.1.) Mary kissed John subject>object *object>subject Hale (1983) was the first to describe the Australian language Warlpiri as non- configurational.

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