Syntax at the Edge: Cross-Clausal Phenomena and the Syntax of Passamaquoddy
B. Bruening, 2001
This study attempts to understand a variety of cross-clausal dependencies through detailed study of one language, Passamaquoddy (Algonquian). It focuses in particular on three phenomena: successive-cyclic wh-movement, wh–scope marking, and raising to object. In exploring these issues I adopt and argue for a recent approach to cyclicity, the phase and Agree theory of Chomsky (1998, 1999).
The successive-cyclic nature of wh-movement is shown to be visible in Passamaquoddy in a phenomenon of agreement with moving operators (wh-phrases, relative operators, and focus operators). This agreement appears on every verb along the path of movement. I argue that the phase theory coupled with a necessary Agree relation between each verb and a moving operator can account for this pattern, as well as a complex pattern of interaction between types of extraction and verbal morphology.
Successive-cyclic agreement is also able to decide between competing theories of wh–scope marking, a construction in which short-distance wh-movement takes place but gives rise to a long-distance interpretation, through association with a scope-marking element in a higher position. Agreement is shown to take place even with covert movement in Passamaquoddy, in focus constructions and internally headed relative clauses. In wh–scope marking, agreement indicates that one type of scope marking construction involves covert movement of the lower wh-phrase, but a second type (the less restricted of the two) does not. This fact and others that correlate with the difference in agreement indicate that Passamaquoddy instantiates both of the leading analyses of wh–scope marking: Direct and Indirect Dependencies (van Riemsdijk 1983, Dayal 1994).
Raising to object is shown to involve a dependency of a different kind: one that is clause-bounded in one respect but not in another. Raising to object position does not actually target object position in the higher clause; instead an NP moves just to the edge of the lower clause, where Agree can take place with the higher verb (across a clause boundary). However, raising to object apparently feeds A-movement in the higher clause; but when it does, I show that the “raised” NP must be base-generated at the edge of the lower clause and not moved out of it. The reason (the ban on improper movement) follows from the way features are checked in a cyclic derivation. Data from Japanese are brought in to show the cross-linguistic generality of the principles adduced.
Thesis Supervisor: David Pesetsky
Title: Professor of Linguistics
<br/>
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................. 9
Abbreviations................................................................................................................... 11
Orthography and Citations............................................................................................ 13
1. Introduction: Passamaquoddy Syntax.................................................................... 15
1.1. Theoretical Goals................................................................................................. 15
1.1.1. Cyclicity: Phases....................................................................................... 15
1.1.2. Agree.......................................................................................................... 16
1.1.3. Raising to Object....................................................................................... 17
1.1.4. Wh–Scope Marking................................................................................... 18
1.2. Passamaquoddy.................................................................................................... 19
1.2.1. Typology: Morphology and Syntax......................................................... 20
1.2.2. Nonconfigurationality................................................................................ 22
1.2.3. The Pronominal Argument Hypothesis.................................................... 24
1.2.4. Passamaquoddy Is Configurational........................................................... 31
1.3. Morphosyntax of Passamaquoddy...................................................................... 36
1.3.1. Transcription............................................................................................. 36
1.3.2. Phonology.................................................................................................. 36
1.3.3. Major Syntactic Categories....................................................................... 37
1.3.4. Nominal Inflection..................................................................................... 38
1.3.5. The Noun Phrase....................................................................................... 40
1.3.6. Verb Inflection........................................................................................... 41
1.3.7. Negation..................................................................................................... 51
1.3.8. Prepositional Phrases................................................................................ 52
1.3.9. Particles..................................................................................................... 53
1.4. Word Order and Clause Structure........................................................................ 56
1.4.1. Word Order: Statistics from Texts............................................................ 57
1.4.2. Fixed SVO Order....................................................................................... 69
1.4.3. Ambiguity: S before O............................................................................... 72
1.4.4. Conclusion: Basic Word Order.................................................................. 73
1.4.5. Proximates and Obviatives........................................................................ 74
1.4.6. Clause Structure......................................................................................... 74
2. Quantifiers, Binding, and A-Movement................................................................. 83
2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 83
2.2. Quantifiers in Passamaquoddy............................................................................. 84
2.2.1. A-Quantifiers............................................................................................. 84
2.2.2. Universal Quantifiers................................................................................. 85
2.2.3. Distributive Quantifier yatte wen............................................................... 89
2.2.4. Negative Quantifiers.................................................................................. 91
2.2.5. Indefinites.................................................................................................. 92
2.2.6. Analysis: Indefinites.................................................................................. 94
2.2.7. Other Quantifiers....................................................................................... 95
2.3. Variable Binding................................................................................................... 99
2.3.1. Conditions on Binding............................................................................... 99
2.3.2. Indefinite Pronouns as Variables............................................................. 107
2.4. Scope and A-Binding.......................................................................................... 110
2.4.1. Scope in Transitives................................................................................ 110
2.4.2. Weak Crossover....................................................................................... 113
2.4.3. The Inverse.............................................................................................. 115
2.4.4. Scope and Binding in the Inverse............................................................. 117
2.4.5. Analysis................................................................................................... 117
2.4.6. Where the Inverse Is Possible: WCO...................................................... 131
2.4.7. Ditransitives............................................................................................ 134
2.4.8. Scope and A-Binding: Summary.............................................................. 137
2.5. A-Bar Movement............................................................................................... 138
2.6. Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 142
3. Extraction and Scrambling.................................................................................... 143
3.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 143
3.2. Extraction Phenomena: Questions...................................................................... 144
3.2.1. Movement............................................................................................... 145
3.2.2. Simplex vs. Complex Wh-Phrases........................................................... 147
3.2.3. Multiple Questions................................................................................. 157
3.2.4. Unselective Binding?............................................................................... 160
3.3. Extraction: Relative Clauses............................................................................... 161
3.3.1. Indirect (Non-)Wh-Questions.................................................................. 163
3.3.2. The Element eli-....................................................................................... 165
3.4. Relative Root Questions and Complementation................................................ 168
3.4.1. Relative Root Arguments........................................................................ 168
3.4.2. Analysis................................................................................................... 170
3.4.3. Relative Root Complement Clauses........................................................ 172
3.4.4. Non–Relative Root Complement Clauses............................................... 172
3.4.5. Agree and Successive Cyclicity............................................................... 176
3.4.6. Long-Distance Relative Root Questions................................................. 180
3.4.7. Conclusion............................................................................................... 184
3.5. Long-Distance Scrambling.................................................................................. 184
3.5.1. Islands...................................................................................................... 185
3.5.2. Topicalization.......................................................................................... 187
3.5.3. Rightward Dislocation............................................................................. 189
3.5.4. Conclusion............................................................................................... 190
3.6. Appendix: Movement Parse of Left-Dislocation?............................................. 190
3.6.1. Islands Revisited...................................................................................... 190
3.6.2. Hitchhiking Clitics................................................................................... 192
3.7. Appendix: Relative Root Questions and Negation............................................ 193
4. Scope Marking and Operator Movement............................................................. 195
4.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 195
4.2. Wh–Scope Marking............................................................................................ 197
4.2.1. Analyses of Wh–Scope Marking............................................................. 197
4.2.2. Properties of Wh–Scope Marking........................................................... 198
4.2.3. Passamaquoddy and Operator Movement.............................................. 205
4.3. Participle Agreement.......................................................................................... 206
4.3.1. Relative Clauses....................................................................................... 207
4.3.2. Long-Distance Relativization.................................................................. 208
4.3.3. Analysis................................................................................................... 209
4.3.4. Questions................................................................................................. 210
4.3.5. Questions Are Not (All) Relative Clauses.............................................. 210
4.3.6. Long-Distance Questions........................................................................ 217
4.4. Covert Movement.............................................................................................. 218
4.4.1. Focus....................................................................................................... 218
4.4.2. Association with Focus........................................................................... 222
4.4.3. Long-Distance Association with Focus................................................... 227
4.4.4. Internally Headed Relative Clauses......................................................... 228
4.4.5. Agreement in Scope Marking.................................................................. 230
4.4.6. Contrast: Another Pattern of Scope Marking......................................... 235
4.5. Alternative Analysis of Wh–Scope Marking..................................................... 238
4.5.1. Additional Arguments against Direct Dependency................................. 244
4.5.2. Properties of Wh–Scope Marking........................................................... 249
4.5.3. Restrictions on the Matrix Predicate....................................................... 250
4.5.4. Intervention............................................................................................. 252
4.6. Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 253
5. Raising to Object..................................................................................................... 255
5.1. Introduction........................................................................................................ 255
5.2. Raising to Object in Passamaquoddy................................................................. 258
5.2.1. Raising to Object: Introduction............................................................... 258
5.2.2. Complement Clause or Complement NP?............................................... 259
5.2.3. Agreement with the Clause?.................................................................... 261
5.2.4. Dislocation (Raising)............................................................................... 262
5.2.5. Arguments for Movement....................................................................... 262
5.2.6. Islands...................................................................................................... 265
5.2.7. Wh-Movement......................................................................................... 267
5.2.8. Counterargument: Subsets....................................................................... 268
5.2.9. Arguments against Two Distinct Arguments.......................................... 270
5.2.10. Raising Does Not Cross the CP Boundary............................................. 270
5.2.11. Conclusion............................................................................................... 271
5.3. Operations in the Higher Clause........................................................................ 272
5.3.1. Argument Structure Alternations............................................................ 272
5.3.2. The Inverse.............................................................................................. 274
5.4. Raising Does Not Feed Operations in the Higher Clause.................................. 275
5.4.1. The Inverse.............................................................................................. 275
5.4.2. First–Second Person Interaction.............................................................. 277
5.4.3. Reciprocals.............................................................................................. 278
5.4.4. Summary.................................................................................................. 279
5.5. A Theory of Raising to Object........................................................................... 279
5.5.1. A-Bar Movement.................................................................................... 279
5.5.2. Discourse Properties............................................................................... 282
5.5.3. A-Movement........................................................................................... 283
5.5.4. Constituency........................................................................................... 284
5.5.5. A-Features and Improper Movement..................................................... 285
5.5.6. Long-Distance Agree............................................................................... 290
5.5.7. Summary.................................................................................................. 292
5.6. Raising to Object in Japanese............................................................................. 292
5.6.1. Arguments for Movement....................................................................... 292
5.6.2. Operations in the Higher Clause.............................................................. 294
5.6.3. Raising Does Not Feed Higher Operations............................................. 295
5.6.4. Raising Does Not Cross the CP Boundary............................................. 297
5.6.5. Constituency........................................................................................... 298
5.6.6. Evidence: Pronouns................................................................................. 300
5.6.7. Further Evidence: Topic/Focus............................................................... 301
5.6.8. The Peripheral Position........................................................................... 302
5.6.9. Summary.................................................................................................. 304
5.7. Wh-Questions in Passamaquoddy and Economy............................................... 304
5.8. Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 306
Bibliography.................................................................................................................. 307