City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 The domain of Finiteness: Anchoring without Tense in copular amalgam sentences Teresa Elizabeth O'Neill Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1080 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] The domain of Finiteness Anchoring without Tense in copular amalgam sentences by Teresa O’Neill A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii c 2015 Teresa O’Neill All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Marcel den Dikken Date Chair of Examining Committee Gita Martohardjono Date Executive Officer Marcel den Dikken William Haddican William McClure Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract The domain of Finiteness Anchoring without Tense in copular amalgam sentences by Teresa O’Neill Advisor: Marcel den Dikken The central thesis of this work is that a clause consisting only of left-peripheral functional structure can be fully finite. Generative models of clause structure typically assume that a finite clause must be tensed, including a projection of T and a temporal relation between the proposition and the utterance context. In light of evidence from tenseless languages, this assumption has come under scrutiny in recent years. This dissertation offers a new body of evidence from English, a tensed language, in support of the claim that finite clauses can lack the projection of T. Drawing on the results of formal acceptability experiments, this dissertation presents an orig- inal investigation of the understudied family of specificational copular amalgam sentences (e.g., She wrote about finiteness is what she did), which differs from canonical specificational copular sentences with respect to a number of syntactic and semantic properties. The most salient of these properties is the occurrence of a root clause in the role of logical and structural subject. I propose that copular amalgam sentences are finite, but their functional spine consists only of the C-domain, lacking projections of T and V. Since C-domain heads can project in the absence of T and V, there can be no implicational relation between higher and lower heads in the functional sequence. v Copular amalgams show that finiteness can be reduced to phenomena originating in the left pe- riphery of the clause. These phenomena include [T] and [φ] inflection, the licensing of an indepen- dently referential subject, and independent anchoring of the proposition to the utterance context. Independent anchoring, which is typically conflated with temporal anchoring in the T domain, ob- tains via deixis to the utterance context in finite clauses that lack T. This dissertation has two main contributions: to catalogue the properties of a typologically rare, yet understudied construction, and to challenge the Extended Projections model of the clause. Acknowledgements When the end of this journey seemed too far away, I used to read the acknowledgements in dis- sertations I admired, and (in addition to becoming a little misty-eyed), I would feel reinvigorated and inspired to pick up my writing again. Finally, here I am, writing my own acknowledgements section. Of course, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to so many people for helping me aca- demically, materially, and emotionally that there is no way I can thank everyone adequately. This is just a start. First of all, I am deeply grateful to my committee members for supporting this project, and for their excellent and patient feedback. Since my first day of Syntax 1 so many years ago, I have been in awe of Marcel den Dikken’s brilliant mind, encyclopedic knowledge (of perhaps everything), and crystal clear teaching style. His incredibly thorough and astute responses to questions, mus- ings, and work in progress keep me focused and restrained. The sheer speed with which he crafts substantive and insightful replies to emails is unparalleled (and a little eerie). It is impossible to be idle under his guidance. I must also thank Marcel for introducing me to specificational sentences through his seminar on cleft sentences at the CUNY Graduate Center. I may never have stumbled upon these marvelous beasts otherwise! Christina Tortora has been an invaluable source of support throughout this project. I thank Christina for teaching me to slow down and to be patient with the literature, the data, and myself. Her mentoring style wisely balanced free-rein to explore unorthodox ideas and a healthy amount vi vii of restraint. Her insistence on clarity in thinking and writing has transformed my approach to scholarship and to teaching. I admire her deep respect for non-normativized linguistic phenomena and their users, which adds joy and purpose to the work of the syntactician. I will always be grateful to Christina for her confidence in me. I thank Bill McClure for his help over the years with the semantic ingredients of my proposal, and for introducing me to the tools of model-theoretic semantics. His openness to the data and the analytical approach helped me to think freely about the puzzles I wrestled with, and his skepticism encouraged me to pursue unorthodox solutions. Although Bill Haddican joined my committee more recently, his guidance has transformed this project. I got into this for the data, and stayed for the theory, but we all know the adage about the house built on sand! I remember my first meeting with Bill, where I explained my naïve approach to constructing surveys. Bill said, very gently, that I should probably throw it out and start over. I am so glad that he did! The methods and tools he introduced me to have bolstered the credibility and rigor of this work immensely, and have left me with a growing set of skills that I otherwise may never have developed. Many other teachers have helped to form me as a scholar, a teacher, and a human being. At CUNY,I learned from Diane Bradley, Ricardo Otheguy, and Janet Fodor, among many other things, to write like a linguist. Gita Martohardjono introduced me to the process of doing research in her Second Language Acquisition Laboratory. I also thank Gita for taking a chance on an International Studies major and offering me the opportunity to learn linguistics at the Graduate Center. In more recent months, Samer Al-Khatib has offered indispensable guidance as I delve deeper into the semantics side of the field. Sam has been a patient and generous teacher. I am also grateful to Daniel Kaufman and Chris Collins for introducing me to linguistic fieldwork, my other passion viii in linguistics (besides wacky English sentences). When I encountered Martina Wiltschko’s work on endangered First Nations languages, my eyes were opened. I am grateful to Martina, not only for sharing her work on Halkomelem and Blackfoot, but also for her generous feedback and astute criticism on another project, which resonate with me still as I develop as a researcher and a writer. Finally, I thank my students, who throughout the years have taught me so much about linguistics, languages, humanity, and myself. CUNY students remain the hardest-working people I have ever met. Without my linguist-friends, finishing a dissertation would have been far too daunting—and boring. I am lucky to have passed my time at the Graduate Center with such a brilliant, skeptical, fun-loving, supportive, and hard-working group of people. For good times, emotional support, sounding-boarding, Kraftwerk, play-dates, advice on teaching, upstate retreats, and many vigorous hours of kvetching, I thank, in no particular order, Marisa Nagano, Emily Zane, Emily Olsen, Alex Funk, Frances Blanchette, Sonya Elliot, Chris Warnasch, Katie Hawkland, Elizabeth Pratt, and Emily Wilson. Consortium classes at NYU introduced me to many more wonderful classmates, in particular, Jim Wood, Neil Myler, and Tricia Irwin. I am grateful to them for many stimulating discussions and advice on post-post-graduate life. I thank my non-linguist friends for keeping me grounded, for reminding me that there’s a lot more to life than dissertating, and for providing me with a wealth of data (especially Rachel, Katie, Ben, and Sara). I am grateful to Nishi Bissoondial for keeping our program running, for navigating the im- mense CUNY bureaucracy, for patiently helping me with many last-minute urgent requests, and for emotional support over the years. Likewise, I thank Maria Cadme at Queens College for her hard work, skill, and kindness. Finally, without my family, I would never have come this far. My New York family has taught ix me what generosity really looks like. The gifts of support I have received from them—financial, temporal, cultural, emotional—are immeasurable. I thank Grammy and Warren for their gifts and their love for our little family. To Denise and Jimmy, I will never be able to adequately express my gratitude. Their devotion to the wellbeing of four generations of a family is an inspiration, and a comfort during these hectic months of writing. I am grateful to my parents and my siblings (and siblings-in-law) for everything—but especially for their gift of beautiful and peaceful spaces to write in, for taking care of Mimi, for their faith in me, and for their love.