DOCSLIB.ORG

Analyze the Topicalization Construction in Terms of Adjunction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Analyze the Topicalization Construction in Terms of Adjunction TOPICALIZATION AND RELATIVIZATION IN MINIMALIST SYNTAX HIROKI EGASHIRA Tokyo Metropolitan University This paper reanalyzes topicalization and relativization in the frame- work of the Minimalist Program put forward recently by Chomsky (1995) and proposes a unified approach to these two operations. We analyze topicalization as morphologically driven movement, depending, on the circumstances where topicalization is applicable. We further extend this analysis to relativization, and clarify a driving force for movement of a relative pronoun.* 1. Introduction Lasnik and Saito (1992) (henceforth L&S) analyze the topicalization construction in terms of adjunction. Although this analysis is in- genious, there are some topicalization constructions that it cannot deal with. In this paper, we will first reexamine their analysis and point out some problems. We will then propose an alternative analysis of topicalization in the framework of the Minimalist Program put forth recently by Chomsky (1995). We will further extend the proposed analysis of topicalization to relativization, and propose that relativiza- tion undergoes the same operation as topicalization. 2. Lasnik and Saito's Analysis and Its Problems L&S argue that the topicalization construction as in (1a) below is * This paper is based on my presentation at the 14th National Conference of the English Linguistic Society of Japan held at Kwansei Gakuin University on November 16-17, 1996. I am. grateful to Heizo Nakajima, Ken-ichi Takami, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Shigeo Tonoike, Ichiro Hirata, Kensuke Takonai, and Kosuke Tanaka for their long and patient discussion with me. I also thank Koji Fujita and Jun Abe for their comments and criticisms on the presentation. I am also indebted to two anonymous EL reviewers for insightful comments and suggestions. It goes without saying that all remaining errors are mine. English Linguistics 14 (1997) 28-51 -28- (C)1997 by the English Linguistic Society of Japan TOPICALIZATION AND RELATIVIZATION IN MINIMALIST SYNTAX 29 derived by adjunction of a topic element to TP (=IP), =as shown in (1b): (1) a. This book, I really like. b. [TP This booki [TP I really like ti]] This analysis is based on the fact that in an embedded clause, a topic element appears between the complementizer that occupying the head of CP and the subject occupying the Spec of TP, as observed in (2): (2) I believe [CP that [TP the booki [TP I gave ti away to some friends]]] (L&S (1992: 76)) Behind this analysis, as pointed by Rochemont (1989), lies the ad- junction condition; namely, adjunction is possible only to a maximal projection that is a nonargument (Chomsky (1986)). The TP node, whether it is a matrix TP or an embedded one, is a nonargument maximal projection since it is not semantically-selected by a lexical category. Although this analysis correctly predicts the distribution of a topic element, a closer look at other topicalization constructions reveals that L&S's analysis has both theoretical and empirical problems. Let us begin with its empirical problems. There are several in- stances that resist adjunction of a topic element to the TP node in spite of the fact that the adjunction condition is observed. Observe the following sentence involving an infinitival clause: (3) a. My friends tend to support more liberal candidates. b. *My friends tend [CP [TP more liberal candidatesi [TP to support ti]]] (Hooper & Thompson (1973: 485)) In (3b) the object of the verb support in (3a) is topicalized and adjoined to the infinitival TP, which is a nonargument maximal pro- jection. However, the derived sentence is ungrammatical. Next, compare the following two sentences: (4) a. I believe [that you will like the book] b. It's important [that he study the book more carefully] (Hooper & Thompson (1973: 485)) The bracketed clause in (4a) is declarative and that in (4b) is sub- junctive. However, they are identical in the sense that they consist of the projection of C (complementizer) and that of T.1 Then, L&S's analysis would predict that topicalization should be applicable in both 1 Although in (4b) T is not lexicallyrealized, it is natural to assumethat there is a null element in T because in the British Englishshould generallyappears. 30 ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, VOLUME 14 (1997) embedded clauses, because the embedded TP in (4) is a nonargument maximal projection. However, topicalization for (4a) is grammatical, while that for (4b) is not: (5) a. I believe [CPthat. [TPthis booki [TPyou will really like ti]]] b. *It's important [CP that [TP the booki [TP he study ti more carefully]]] (Hooper & Thompson (1973: 485)) Another problem with L&S's analysis concerns imperatives. Imai & Nakajima (1972) and Imai et al. (1989) argue that imperatives consists of the projection of T, whose feature is specified as [Imp], and that a null subject occupies the Spec of TP: (6) [TP pro T[Imp][VP study the Minimalist Program developed recently by Chomsky]] Given this structure, it is natural to assume that it is possible to topicalize the object of the verb study and adjoin it to the nonargument TP. However, the application of topicalization in (6) gives rise to ungrammaticality: (7) *[TP [the Minimalist Program developed recently by Chom- sky]i [TP pro T[Imp][VP study ti]]] Let us turn to a theoretical problem with L&S's analysis. Basically, the adjunction operation is executed freely. In other words, this operation requires no driving force. However, in the Minimalist Program, all movement operations are restricted to morphologically driven movement. If this assumption is correct (and we believe it), L&S's analysis would end up encountering a serious problem, since their analysis of topicalization requires no driving force. In this section we have seen that L&S's TP adjunction analysis of topicalization encounters both empirical and theoretical problems; empirically, there are several constructions that resist topicalization in spite of the fact that the adjunction condition is observed, and theoretically, movement by adjunction would be called into question in the framework of the Minimalist Program. Given this state of affairs, we can conclude that L&S's analysis loses its force, and that some modifications of the analysis of the topicalization construction seems to be called for. 3. An Alternative Analysis Let us first compare the grammatical (1a) with the ungrammatical TOPICALIZATION AND RELATIVIZATION IN MINIMALIST SYNTAX 31 (3b), (5b) and (7), all repeated below: (8) This book, I really like. (9) a. *My friends tend more liberal candidates to support. b. *It's important that the book he study more carefully. c. *The Minimalist Program developed recently by Chom- sky study. The crucial difference between (8) and (9) seems to lie in the property of T, to whose maximal projection a topic element is adjoined. The property of T in (8) is finite, while that of T in (9) in non-finite. Thus, we can generalize that topicalization is possible if T is finite, and make the following assumptions: (10) a. A finite T is assigned a [Top(ic)] feature, which is a strong feature to be checked when it is drawn from the Lexicon to the Numeration. b. D(eterminer) of a topicalized element is always as- signed an Interpretable [Top] feature. The abstract morphological feature [Top], which we assume in (10), can be found in topicalization in Illongo: (11) a. dala sang babayi sang bata. bring AGT woman OBJ child 'A woman brought a child.' b. Nag-dala ang babayi sang bata. AGT-bring TOP woman OBJ child ' The woman brought a child.' c. Gin-dala sang babayi ang bata OBJ-bring AGT woman TOP child 'The/A woman brought the child.' (Schachter (1973: 24)) According to Schachter (1973), (b) and (c) in (11) are topicalization sentences derived from (11a). In this language, when an element is topicalized, the topicalized element is marked with the topic marker ang as shown in (11b) and (11c). This suggests that in some lan- guages, a [Top] feature is morphologically realized. Therefore, it can be assumed that the overt realization of the [Top] feature in Illongo holds covertly for English even when morphological evidence is lacking. It should be emphasized here that the assumptions in (10) claim that topicalization is derived by the morphological checking operation. The topicalization in Illongo in (11) also supports this claim. Let us see (11) again. When the subject is topicalized as in (11b), the prefix nag, 32 ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, VOLUME 14 (1997) an agent marker, is attached to the verb dala. The same prefixation is also observed in the object topicalization: when the object is topicalized as seen in (11c), the object-marking prefix gin is attached to the verb dala. This kind of prefixation cannot be observed in (11a), where no elements are topicalized. This agreement phenomena suggest that a topic element covertly raises to T which has overtly hosted a verb at the Spell-Out for the feature checking as seen below: (12) a. [TP ang-babayi [Top]i [T' [T[Top] [V nag-dala]] [VP ti sang bata]]] b. [TP ang-bata[Top]i [T' [T[Top] [V gin-dala]] [VP sang babayi ti]]] We can, therefore, conclude that these agreement (or prefixation) phenomena observed in this language support the claim in (10). Furthermore, the assumption in (10a) can explain the ungrammati- cality of (9) because it claims that a strong [Top] feature is assigned to a finite T: T in (9) is not finite. With the assumption in (10) in mind, let us see how the topicaliza- tion construction in (8) above, repeated below, can be derived:2 (13) This booki, I (really) like ti. At an earlier stage of the derivation of (13), we have (14), where the subject I is attracted from the VP internal subject position to the Spec of T by the strong [D] feature that T has:3 (14) [TP I[D]i [T' T [D][Top] [VP ti like [DP [D this [Top]] [NP book]]]]] In order for the strong [Top] feature to be checked, another checking domain of T has to be projected.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Government and Binding Theory.1 I Shall Not Dwell on This Label Here; Its Significance Will Become Clear in Later Chapters of This Book
    Introduction: The Chomskian Perspective on Language Study Contents Introduction 1 Linguistics: the science of language 2 The native speaker: grammaticality and acceptability 2.1 Descriptive adequacy 2.2 Grammaticality and acceptability 2.3 The grammar as a system of principles 3 Knowledge of language 3.1 The poverty of the stimulus 3.2 Universal grammar 3.3 Parameters and universal grammar 3.4 Language learning and language acquisition 3.5 The generative linguist 4 The new comparative syntax 4.1 Principles and parameters: a recapitulation 4.2 The pro-drop properties 4.3 Relating the properties 4.4 Agreement and pro-drop 5 Purpose and organization of the book 5.1 General purpose 5.2 Organization 6 Exercises Introduction The aim of this book is to offer an introduction to the version of generative syntax usually referred to as Government and Binding Theory.1 I shall not dwell on this label here; its significance will become clear in later chapters of this book. Government-Binding Theory is a natural development of earlier versions of generative grammar, initiated by Noam Chomsky some thirty years ago. The purpose of this introductory chapter is not to provide a historical survey of the Chomskian tradition. A full discussion of the history of the generative enterprise would in itself be the basis for a book.2 What I shall do here is offer a short and informal sketch of the essential motivation for the line of enquiry to be pursued. Throughout the book the initial points will become more concrete and more precise. By means of footnotes I shall also direct the reader to further reading related to the matter at hand.
    [Show full text]
  • On Binding Asymmetries in Dative Alternation Constructions in L2 Spanish
    On Binding Asymmetries in Dative Alternation Constructions in L2 Spanish Silvia Perpiñán and Silvina Montrul University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1. Introduction Ditransitive verbs can take a direct object and an indirect object. In English and many other languages, the order of these objects can be altered, giving as a result the Dative Construction on the one hand (I sent a package to my parents) and the Double Object Construction, (I sent my parents a package, hereafter DOC), on the other. However, not all ditransitive verbs can participate in this alternation. The study of the English dative alternation has been a recurrent topic in the language acquisition literature. This argument-structure alternation is widely recognized as an exemplar of the poverty of stimulus problem: from a limited set of data in the input, the language acquirer must somehow determine which verbs allow the alternating syntactic forms and which ones do not: you can give money to someone and donate money to someone; you can also give someone money but you definitely cannot *donate someone money. Since Spanish, apparently, does not allow DOC (give someone money), L2 learners of Spanish whose mother tongue is English have to become aware of this restriction in Spanish, without negative evidence. However, it has been noticed by Demonte (1995) and Cuervo (2001) that Spanish has a DOC, which is not identical, but which shares syntactic and, crucially, interpretive restrictions with the English counterpart. Moreover, within the Spanish Dative Construction, the order of the objects can also be inverted without superficial morpho-syntactic differences, (Pablo mandó una carta a la niña ‘Pablo sent a letter to the girl’ vs.
    [Show full text]
  • 3.1. Government 3.2 Agreement
    e-Content Submission to INFLIBNET Subject name: Linguistics Paper name: Grammatical Categories Paper Coordinator name Ayesha Kidwai and contact: Module name A Framework for Grammatical Features -II Content Writer (CW) Ayesha Kidwai Name Email id [email protected] Phone 9968655009 E-Text Self Learn Self Assessment Learn More Story Board Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Features as Values 3. Contextual Features 3.1. Government 3.2 Agreement 4. A formal description of features and their values 5. Conclusion References 1 1. Introduction In this unit, we adopt (and adapt) the typology of features developed by Kibort (2008) (but not necessarily all her analyses of individual features) as the descriptive device we shall use to describe grammatical categories in terms of features. Sections 2 and 3 are devoted to this exercise, while Section 4 specifies the annotation schema we shall employ to denote features and values. 2. Features and Values Intuitively, a feature is expressed by a set of values, and is really known only through them. For example, a statement that a language has the feature [number] can be evaluated to be true only if the language can be shown to express some of the values of that feature: SINGULAR, PLURAL, DUAL, PAUCAL, etc. In other words, recalling our definitions of distribution in Unit 2, a feature creates a set out of values that are in contrastive distribution, by employing a single parameter (meaning or grammatical function) that unifies these values. The name of the feature is the property that is used to construct the set. Let us therefore employ (1) as our first working definition of a feature: (1) A feature names the property that unifies a set of values in contrastive distribution.
    [Show full text]
  • A PROLOG Implementation of Government-Binding Theory
    A PROLOG Implementation of Government-Binding Theory Robert J. Kuhns Artificial Intelligence Center Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cambridge, MA 02140 USA Abstrae_~t For the purposes (and space limitations) of A parser which is founded on Chomskyts this paper we only briefly describe the theories Government-Binding Theory and implemented in of X-bar, Theta, Control, and Binding. We also PROLOG is described. By focussing on systems of will present three principles, viz., Theta- constraints as proposed by this theory, the Criterion, Projection Principle, and Binding system is capable of parsing without an Conditions. elaborate rule set and subcategorization features on lexical items. In addition to the 2.1 X-Bar Theory parse, theta, binding, and control relations are determined simultaneously. X-bar theory is one part of GB-theory which captures eross-categorial relations and 1. Introduction specifies the constraints on underlying structures. The two general schemata of X-bar A number of recent research efforts have theory are: explicitly grounded parser design on linguistic theory (e.g., Bayer et al. (1985), Berwick and Weinberg (1984), Marcus (1980), Reyle and Frey (1)a. X~Specifier (1983), and Wehrli (1983)). Although many of these parsers are based on generative grammar, b. X-------~X Complement and transformational grammar in particular, with few exceptions (Wehrli (1983)) the modular The types of categories that may precede or approach as suggested by this theory has been follow a head are similar and Specifier and lagging (Barton (1984)). Moreover, Chomsky Complement represent this commonality of the (1986) has recently suggested that rule-based pre-head and post-head categories, respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • Syntax-Semantics Interface
    : Syntax-Semantics Interface http://cognet.mit.edu/library/erefs/mitecs/chierchia.html Subscriber : California Digital Library » LOG IN Home Library What's New Departments For Librarians space GO REGISTER Advanced Search The CogNet Library : References Collection : Table of Contents : Syntax-Semantics Interface «« Previous Next »» A commonplace observation about language is that it consists of the systematic association of sound patterns with meaning. SYNTAX studies the structure of well-formed phrases (spelled out as sound sequences); SEMANTICS deals with the way syntactic structures are interpreted. However, how to exactly slice the pie between these two disciplines and how to map one into the other is the subject of controversy. In fact, understanding how syntax and semantics interact (i.e., their interface) constitutes one of the most interesting and central questions in linguistics. Traditionally, phenomena like word order, case marking, agreement, and the like are viewed as part of syntax, whereas things like the meaningfulness of a well-formed string are seen as part of semantics. Thus, for example, "I loves Lee" is ungrammatical because of lack of agreement between the subject and the verb, a phenomenon that pertains to syntax, whereas Chomky's famous "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is held to be syntactically well-formed but semantically deviant. In fact, there are two aspects of the picture just sketched that one ought to keep apart. The first pertains to data, the second to theoretical explanation. We may be able on pretheoretical grounds to classify some linguistic data (i.e., some native speakers' intuitions) as "syntactic" and others as "semantic." But we cannot determine a priori whether a certain phenomenon is best explained in syntactic or semantics terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto De Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic
    Introduction: Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic To cite this version: Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic. Introduction: Complex Adpo- sitions and Complex Nominal Relators. Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Dejan Stosic, Elena Smirnova. Complex Adpositions in European Languages : A Micro-Typological Approach to Com- plex Nominal Relators, 65, De Gruyter Mouton, pp.1-30, 2020, Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 978-3-11-068664-7. 10.1515/9783110686647-001. halshs-03087872 HAL Id: halshs-03087872 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03087872 Submitted on 24 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Public Domain Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova & Dejan Stosic Introduction: Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard CNRS, ENS & Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle; PSL Lattice laboratory, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 1 rue Maurice Arnoux, 92120 Montrouge, France [email protected]
    [Show full text]
  • 501 Grammar & Writing Questions 3Rd Edition
    501 GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONS 501 GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONS 3rd Edition ® NEW YORK Copyright © 2006 LearningExpress, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 501 grammar & writing questions.—3rd ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-57685-539-2 1. English language—Grammar—Examinations, questions, etc. 2. English language— Rhetoric—Examinations, questions, etc. 3. Report writing—Examinations, questions, etc. I. Title: 501 grammar and writing questions. II. Title: Five hundred one grammar and writing questions. III. Title: Five hundred and one grammar and writing questions. PE1112.A15 2006 428.2'076—dc22 2005035266 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Third Edition ISBN 1-57685-539-2 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at: www.learnatest.com Contents INTRODUCTION vii SECTION 1 Mechanics: Capitalization and Punctuation 1 SECTION 2 Sentence Structure 11 SECTION 3 Agreement 29 SECTION 4 Modifiers 43 SECTION 5 Paragraph Development 49 SECTION 6 Essay Questions 95 ANSWERS 103 v Introduction his book—which can be used alone, along with another writing-skills text of your choice, or in com- bination with the LearningExpress publication, Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day—will give Tyou practice dealing with capitalization, punctuation, basic grammar, sentence structure, organiza- tion, paragraph development, and essay writing. It is designed to be used by individuals working on their own and for teachers or tutors helping students learn or review basic writing skills.
    [Show full text]
  • Estonian and Latvian Verb Government Comparison
    TARTU UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ESTONIAN AND GENERAL LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT OF ESTONIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Miķelis Zeibārts ESTONIAN AND LATVIAN VERB GOVERNMENT COMPARISON Master thesis Supervisor Dr. phil Valts Ernštreits and co-supervisor Mg. phil Ilze Tālberga Tartu 2017 Table of contents Preface ............................................................................................................................... 5 1. Method of research .................................................................................................... 8 2. Description of research sources and theoretical literature ......................................... 9 2.1. Research sources ................................................................................................ 9 2.2. Theoretical literature ........................................................................................ 10 3. Theoretical research background ............................................................................. 12 3.1. Cases in Estonian and Latvian .......................................................................... 12 3.1.1. Estonian noun cases .................................................................................. 12 3.1.2. Latvian noun cases .................................................................................... 13 3.2. The differences and similarities between Estonian and Latvian cases ............. 14 3.2.1. The differences between Estonian and Latvian case systems ................... 14 3.2.2. The similarities
    [Show full text]
  • On Object Shift, Scrambling, and the PIC
    On Object Shift, Scrambling, and the PIC Peter Svenonius University of Tromsø and MIT* 1. A Class of Movements The displacements characterized in (1-2) have received a great deal of attention. (Boldface in the gloss here is simply to highlight the alternation.) (1) Scrambling (exx. from Bergsland 1997: 154) a. ... gan nagaan slukax igaaxtakum (Aleut) his.boat out.of seagull.ABS flew ‘... a seagull flew out of his boat’ b. ... quganax hlagan kugan husaqaa rock.ABS his.son on.top.of fell ‘... a rock fell on top of his son’1 (2) Object Shift (OS) a. Hann sendi sem betur fer bréfi ni ur. (Icelandic) he sent as better goes the.letter down2 b. Hann sendi bréfi sem betur fer ni ur. he sent the.letter as better goes down (Both:) ‘He fortunately sent the letter down’ * I am grateful to the University of Tromsø Faculty of Humanities for giving me leave to traipse the globe on the strength of the promise that I would write some papers, and to the MIT Department of Linguistics & Philosophy for welcoming me to breathe in their intellectually stimulating atmosphere. I would especially like to thank Noam Chomsky, Norvin Richards, and Juan Uriagereka for discussing parts of this work with me while it was underway, without implying their endorsement. Thanks also to Kleanthes Grohmann and Ora Matushansky for valuable feedback on earlier drafts, and to Ora Matushansky and Elena Guerzoni for their beneficient editorship. 1 According to Bergsland (pp. 151-153), a subject preceding an adjunct tends to be interpreted as definite (making (1b) unusual), and one following an adjunct tends to be indefinite; this is broadly consistent with the effects of scrambling cross-linguistically.
    [Show full text]
  • A Minimalist Analysis of English Topicalization: a Phase-Based Cartographic Complementizer Phrase (CP) Perspective
    J UOEH 38（ 4 ）: 279－289（2016） 279 ［Original］ A Minimalist Analysis of English Topicalization: A Phase-Based Cartographic Complementizer Phrase (CP) Perspective Hiroyoshi Tanaka* Department of English, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan. Yahata- nishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan Abstract : Under the basic tenet that syntactic derivation offers an optimal solution to both phonological realization and semantic interpretation of linguistic expression, the recent minimalist framework of syntactic theory claims that the basic unit for the derivation is equivalent to a syntactic propositional element, which is called a phase. In this analysis, syntactic derivation is assumed to proceed at phasal projections that include Complementizer Phrases (CP). However, there have been pointed out some empirical problems with respect to the failure of multiple occurrences of discourse-related elements in the CP domain. This problem can be easily overcome if the alternative approach in the recent minimalist perspective, which is called Cartographic CP analysis, is adopted, but this may raise a theoretical issue about the tension between phasality and four kinds of functional projections assumed in this analysis (Force Phrase (ForceP), Finite Phrase (FinP), Topic Phrase (TopP) and Focus Phrase (FocP)). This paper argues that a hybrid analysis with these two influential approaches can be proposed by claiming a reasonable assumption that syntacti- cally requisite projections (i.e., ForceP and FinP) are phases and independently constitute a phasehood with relevant heads in the derivation. This then enables us to capture various syntactic properties of the Topicalization construction in English. Our proposed analysis, coupled with some additional assumptions and observations in recent minimalist studies, can be extended to incorporate peculiar properties in temporal/conditional adverbials and imperatives.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 a Microparametric Approach to the Head-Initial/Head-Final Parameter
    A microparametric approach to the head-initial/head-final parameter Guglielmo Cinque Ca’ Foscari University, Venice Abstract: The fact that even the most rigid head-final and head-initial languages show inconsistencies and, more crucially, that the very languages which come closest to the ideal types (the “rigid” SOV and the VOS languages) are apparently a minority among the languages of the world, makes it plausible to explore the possibility of a microparametric approach for what is often taken to be one of the prototypical examples of macroparameter, the ‘head-initial/head-final parameter’. From this perspective, the features responsible for the different types of movement of the constituents of the unique structure of Merge from which all canonical orders derive are determined by lexical specifications of different generality: from those present on a single lexical item, to those present on lexical items belonging to a specific subclass of a certain category, or to every subclass of a certain category, or to every subclass of two or more, or all, categories, (always) with certain exceptions.1 Keywords: word order, parameters, micro-parameters, head-initial, head-final 1. Introduction. An influential conjecture concerning parameters, subsequent to the macro- parametric approach of Government and Binding theory (Chomsky 1981,6ff and passim), is that they can possibly be “restricted to formal features [of functional categories] with no interpretation at the interface” (Chomsky 1995,6) (also see Borer 1984 and Fukui 1986). This conjecture has opened the way to a microparametric approach to differences among languages, as well as to differences between related words within one and the same language (Kayne 2005,§1.2).
    [Show full text]
  • Remarks on Binding Theory
    Remarks on Binding Theory Carl Pollard Ohio State University Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar Department of Informatics, University of Lisbon Stefan Muller¨ (Editor) 2005 CSLI Publications pages 561–577 http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/HPSG/2005 Pollard, Carl. 2005. Remarks on Binding Theory. In Muller,¨ Stefan (Ed.), Pro- ceedings of the 12th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Department of Informatics, University of Lisbon, 561–577. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. Abstract We propose some reformulations of binding principle A that build on re- cent work by Pollard and Xue, and by Runner et al. We then turn to the thorny issue of the status of indices, in connection with the seemingly simpler Principle B. We conclude that the notion of index is fundamen- tally incoherent, and suggest some possible approaches to eliminating them as theoretical primitives. One possibility is to let logical variables take up the explanatory burden borne by indices, but this turns out to be fraught with difficulties. Another approach, which involves returning to the idea that referentially dependent expressions denote identity func- tions (as proposed, independently, by Pollard and Sag and by Jacobson) seerms to hold more promise. 1 Introduction As formulated by Chomsky (1986), binding theory (hereafter BT) constrained in- dexings, which were taken to be assignments of indices to the NPs in a phrase. What an index was was irrelevant; what mattered was that they partitioned all the NPs in a phrase into equivalence classes. Phrases, in turn, were taken to be trees of the familiar kind and the binding constraints themselves were couched in terms of tree-configurational notions such as government, c-command (or m-command), chain, and maximal projection.
    [Show full text]