Order and structure in syntax II Subjecthood and argument structure Edited by Michelle Sheehan Laura R. Bailey language Open Generative Syntax 2 science press Open Generative Syntax Editors: Elena Anagnostopoulou, Mark Baker, Roberta D’Alessandro, David Pesetsky, Susi Wurmbrand In this series: 1. Bailey, Laura R. & Michelle Sheehan (eds.). Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure. 2. Sheehan, Michelle & Laura R. Bailey (eds.). Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure. Order and structure in syntax II Subjecthood and argument structure Edited by Michelle Sheehan Laura R. Bailey language science press Michelle Sheehan & Laura R. Bailey (ed.). 2018. Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure (Open Generative Syntax 2). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/115 © 2018, the authors Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-96110-028-6 (Digital) 978-3-96110-029-3 (Hardcover) DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1115573 Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/115 Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=115 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Birgit Jänen, Alec Shaw, Iana Stefanova, Felix Kopecky, Sebastian Nordhoff. Michelle Sheehan Proofreading: Antonio Machicao y Priemer, Daniela Kolbe-Hanna, Eran Asoulin, George Walkden, Ikmi Nur Oktavianti, Lea Schäfer, Natsuko Nakagawa, Neal Whitman, Melanie Röthlisberger, Steve Pepper, Teresa Proto, Timm Lichte, Valeria Quochi Fonts: Linux Libertine, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. This book is dedicated to Anders Holmberg in recognition not only of his significant contribution to the field of syntax, but also of his support, guidance and friendship to the editors and the contributors to this volume. Contents Introduction: Order and structure in syntax Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan vii I Papers 1 On the softness of parameters: An experiment on Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson 3 2 The role of locatives in (partial) pro-drop languages Artemis Alexiadou & Janayna Carvalho 41 3 Expletives and speaker-related meaning Ciro Greco, Liliane Haegeman & Trang Phan 69 4 Places Tarald Taraldsen 95 5 Flexibility in symmetry: An implicational relation in Bantu double object constructions Jenneke van der Wal 115 6 Defective intervention effects in two Greek varieties and their implications for φ-incorporation as Agree Elena Anagnostopoulou 153 7 First Person Readings of MAN: On semantic and pragmatic restrictions on an impersonal pronoun Verner Egerland 179 8 Who are we – and who is I? About Person and SELF Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson 197 9 New roles for Gender: Evidence from Arabic, Semitic, Berber, and Romance Abdelkader Fassi Fehri 221 10 Puzzling parasynthetic compounds in Norwegian Janne Bondi Johannessen 257 II Squibs 11 On a “make-believe” argument for Case Theory Jonathan David Bobaljik 277 12 Semantic characteristics of recursive compounds Makiko Mukai 285 13 Expletive passives in Scandinavian – with and without objects Elisabet Engdahl 289 14 The null subject parameter meets the Polish impersonal -NO/-TO construction Małgorzata Krzek 307 15 Ellipsis in Arabic fragment answers Ali Algryani 319 16 Anaphoric object drop in Chinese Patrick Chi-wai Lee 329 17 Icelandic as a partial null subject language: Evidence from fake indexicals Susi Wurmbrand 339 Index 347 vi Introduction: Order and structure in syntax Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan University of Kent and Anglia Ruskin University Hierarchical structure and argument structure are two of the most pervasive and widely studied properties of natural language.1 The papers in this set of two vol- umes further explore these aspects of language from a range of perspectives, touching on a number of fundamental issues, notably the relationship between linear order and hierarchical structure and variation in subjecthood properties across languages. The first volume focuses on issues of word order and itsre- lationship to structure. This second volume focuses on argument structure and subjecthood in particular. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of the content of the 10 papers and seven squibs relating to argument structure and subjecthood, drawing out important threads and questions which they raise. Many of the contributions in this volume deal with subjects other than canon- ical referential DPs, such as expletives with some referential meaning, non-DP subjects, pronouns in pro-drop languages, or impersonal subjects of one kind or another. Together they provide a snapshot of cross-linguistic variability in sub- jecthood. Thráinsson’s contribution considers evidence from Faroese that the possibility of quirky subjects is parametrically connected to other surface prop- erties by a deep parameter, and ultimately argues that parameters must be ‘soft’. Greco, Haegeman & Phan consider the status of overt expletives in Vietnamese and what this implies for the null subject parameter. Their expletives are not like the canonical ones as they have some discourse meaning. ‘Non-expletive’ exple- tives also appear in the contribution from Alexiadou & Carvalho, who argue that locative subjects in some partial pro-drop languages are expletive-like, while in 1All of the papers in this volume were written on the occasion of Anders Holmberg’s 65th birth- day in recognition of the enormous contribution he has made to these issues. Laura R. Bailey & Michelle Sheehan. 2018. Introduction: Order and structure in syntax. In Michelle Sheehan & Laura R. Bailey (eds.), Order and structure in syn- tax II: Subjecthood and argument structure, vii–ix. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1116787 Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan others they are referential. Taraldsen’s chapter also discusses locative subjects, arguing that the PP subjects found in Norwegian are genuine subjects and move to canonical subject position. Similarly, Anagnostopoulou uses her contribution to argue for a difference between Movement and Agree, arguing that some phe- nomena which have been argued to involve Agree actually involve movement of the subject to Spec,TP. Both Egerland and Sigurðsson and the squibs from Engdahl and Krzek focus on the interpretation of certain kinds of subjects. Sigurðsson discusses those in- stances of we that cannot be said to include the speaker, and argues for a version of Ross’s performative hypothesis, similar to that defended by Wiltschko (vol. 1). Egerland focuses on first-person impersonal pronouns such as German man and Italian si and argues that a plural interpretation is lexically specified in some lan- guages, and must be the interpretation in certain contexts. Krzek returns to null subject languages with a squib on null impersonal subjects in Polish, while Eng- dahl discusses expletive passive constructions and (un)expected word orders in the Scandinavian varieties. Wurmbrand’s squib focuses on the status of Icelandic in relation to the null subject parameter. Based on the behaviour of fake index- icals, she argues that Icelandic is indeed a partial null subject language, despite its exceptional behaviour in certain respects. A number of the contributions focus on object arguments rather than sub- jects. Van der Wal presents data from Bantu languages and shows that they differ with respect to their symmetry and case-licensing properties in ditransitive con- structions. She further proposes a novel implicational hierarchy to capture the observed patterns and provides a formalization of this in terms of sensitivity to topicality. It is the absence of ditransitives that fuels Bobaljik’s squib, as he notes that Icelandic does not allow ECM distransitives despite lacking the adjacency condition supposed to ban them. This in turn means that Case Theory cannot explain this systematic gap. Lee’s squib deals with object drop in Chinese, and returns to the theme of non-specific arguments with indefinite antecedents. Al- gryani combines the themes of ellipsis and answers to questions with a proposal for fragment answers in Arabic. Fassi Fehri focuses on the role of gender features on all arguments, arguing that a combination of properties means that gender has a range of meanings including diminutive and evaluative, among others. Lastly, two of the squibs are about the properties of compounds: recursive ones in the case of Mukai, while Johannessen discusses the class of parasynthetic compounds in Norwegian of the type brown-eyed, whose heads do not surface alone as adjectives. viii 1 Introduction: Order and structure in syntax This volume, like the first, provides new data and analysis based onawide range of languages. In all these papers, the influence of the work of Anders Holmberg can be observed, from the typology of null subject languages and the status of expletive, locative and generic subjects to the syntax of ditransitives and the status of V2. ix Part I Papers Chapter 1 On the softness of parameters: An experiment on Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson University