On Government

J. Uriagereka, 1988

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          This thesis explores the notion government within the Principles and Parameters model of Universal Grammar. Following Chomsky's proposals in Barriers, government is defined recursively, the induction step in terms of the notion barrier. This is used to account for phenomena that fall under (i) Case Theory, (ii) Movement operations and representations, (iii) Binding Theory.

          Barrier is defined in terms of maximal functional projections headed by a morphologically represented category. The process of Head Incorporation, since it leaves behind a non-morphological element (t), eliminates a class of potential barriers. Another class is eliminated by preventing the functional projection from taking a specifier, which results in the projection being non-maximal. Given this relativization, the same notion barrier can be used in different sub-systems.

          Analyses are presented of phenomena within the Romance Languages, English, Basque, and others, all of which involve government: Case assignment, Subjacency parameters, Multiple Questions, Modification, Cliticization, et cetera. Apart from simplifying considerably the Theory of Barriers, an attempt is made to derive Binding Theory from government-related notions, such as the Empty Category Principle and Incorporation.

Chapter 1:      ON THE NOTION GOVERNMENT                               1

1.1.    Introduction                                                                            1

          1.1.1. Rectio vs. Concors                                                        2

          1.1.2. The Case of Post-posed Subjects                                    5

                    1.1.2.1.         The Case Transmission Hypothesis            6

                    1.1.2.2.         Partitive Case                                           9

                    1.1.2.3.         Two Different Types of Small Clauses       12

1.2.    Some Principles                                                                      15

          1.2.1. Specifiers and Projection                                                15

          1.2.2. The Visibility Hypothesis                                                18

          1.2.3. The Full Interpretation Principle                                      21

1.3.    Case Assignment at S-structure                                                 26

          1.3.1. The Case of Inverted D-structure Subjects                       27

          1.3.2. Long Distance Assignment of Nominative                        30

          1.3.3. A Recursive Definition of Government                             32

          1.3.4. Conditions on Case Assignment                                      36

1.4.    Incorporation under Government                                               40

          1.4.1. The Case of Small Clauses                                             41

          1.4.2. Visibility and Incorporation                                             46

          1.4.3. Determiner Cliticization in Galician                                  47

          1.4.4. Syntactic Incorporation as Composition                           51

                    1.4.4.1.         Argument Substitution                              51

                    1.4.4.2.         Case as a Marker of Argument-type           54

1.5.    Summary                                                                                59

End Notes                                                                                         62

Chapter 2:      GOVERNMENT AND MOVE α                                      71

2.1.    Conditions on Movement                                                          71

          2.1.1. Barriers for Wh-movement                                             71

                    2.1.1.1.         Subjacency and Incorporation                              73

                    2.1.1.2.         Subjacency Violations in Instances

                                         without Incorporation                               80

                    2.1.1.3.         Specifiers and Barriers                              83

          2.1.2. Parametric Differences in Subjacency                              86

                    2.1.2.1.         The Status of IP Barriers                           88

                    2.1.2.2.         The Status of CP Barriers                          93

                                         2.1.2.2.1.      Relative Clause Formation

                                                              vs. Question Formation        94

                                         2.1.2.2.2.      The Structure of Comp        99

                                         2.1.2.2.3.      When F is Morphological     105

                    2.1.2.3.         The Status of DP Barriers                         110

          2.1.3. Extraction from Non-compliments                                  114

                    2.1.3.1.         Extraction from Subjects                           115

                                         2.1.3.1.1.      Extraction from Sentence

                                                              Internal Subjects                 115

                                         2.1.3.1.2.      Extraction from Extracted

                                                              Subjects                             120

                    2.1.3.2.         Extraction from Adjuncts                          124

                                         2.1.3.2.1.      A Potential Loophole

                                                              in The Barriers System         125

                                         2.1.3.2.2.      S-structure Extraction from

                                                              Adjuncts is Impossible         129

                                         2.1.3.2.3.      Generalized Transformations

                                                              and Some Empirical

                                                              Problems                            133

                                         2.1.3.2.4.      The Path Condition              145

          2.1.4. Summary and Conclusions                                             151

                    2.1.4.1.         Further Processes Predicted by Subjacency 152

                    2.1.4.2.         Degrees of Grammaticality in Subjacency

                                         Violations                                                156

                    2.1.4.3.         Further Constraints on Links                     158

2.2.    The Empty Category Principle (ECP)                                                    164

          2.2.1. Motivating The ECP                                                      164

                    2.2.1.1.         Super Raising                                           164

                    2.2.1.2.         A Statement of the ECP                            167

          2.2.2. The That-trace Effect                                                    175

                    2.2.2.1.         The Classical Instances and Some of

                                         Their Analyses                                         175

                    2.2.2.2.         An Alternative Analysis                             181

          2.2.3. Adjuncts                                                                       185

                    2.2.3.1.         Lack of That-trace Effects in Adjuncts       185

                    2.2.3.2.         Multiple Wh-questions                              189

                                         2.2.3.2.1.      Two Interpretations of

                                                              Multiple Questions               190

                                         2.2.3.2.2.      The Semantics of

                                                              Incriminatory Questions       192

                                         2.2.3.2.3.      The Syntax of Incriminatory

                                                              vs. Inquisitory Questions      197

                    2.2.3.3.         Adjunct Interpretation                               200

                                         2.2.3.3.1.      A Problem for Adjunct

                                                              Movement at LF                  200

                                         2.2.3.3.2.      Adjunct Tags                      202

                                         2.2.3.3.3.      Modification                       208

                                         2.2.3.3.4.      Relativized Minimality 210

                                         2.2.3.3.5.      The Scope of Wh-adjuncts   214

          2.2.4. Incorporation                                                                218

                    2.2.4.1.         Consequences of Incorporation for the ECP 219

                                         2.2.4.1.1.      Lexical Government             219

                                         2.2.4.1.2.      Lack of That-trace Effects in

                                                              Romance                            220

                                         2.2.4.1.3.      Incorporation of Traces       223

                                         2.2.4.1.4.      That-trace Effects at LF in

                                                              Romance                            229

                    2.2.4.2.         Consequences of the ECP for Incorporation 232

                                         2.2.4.2.1.      Syntactic vs. Morphological

                                                              Incorporation                      233

                                         2.2.4.2.2.      The Syntax of Incorporation 238

                                         2.2.4.2.3.      A Further Constraint on

                                                              Morphological Incorporation 243

          2.2.5. Arguments                                                                    246

                    2.2.5.1.         Some Differences Between Propositional

                                         Attitude and Volitional Clauses in Spanish    248

                                         2.2.5.1.1.      Differences in Incorporation 249

                                         2.2.5.1.2.      Differences in Complexity

                                                              (Part I)                                         250

                                         2.2.5.1.3.      Differences in Complexity

                                                              (Part II)                             256

                    2.2.5.2.         An Analysis and Its Consequences             260

                    2.2.5.3.         Nominal Arguments                                  264

                                         2.2.5.3.1.      Wh-extraction                     264

                                         2.2.5.3.2.      Extending The Extended

                                                              Projection Principle              266

                                         2.2.5.3.3.      A-positions                         268

                                         2.2.5.3.4.      The Uniformity Condition     271

          2.2.6. Summary                                                                     276

                    2.2.6.1.         The Final Statement of The ECP                277

                    2.2.6.2.         The Full Interpretation Principle and

                                         The ECP                                                 280

                    2.2.6.3.         Non-arguments and The ECP                               282

End Notes                                                                                         284

Chapter 3:      GOVERNMENT AND BINDING                                    307

3.1.    Introduction                                                                            307

3.2.    Binding Theory                                                                        309

          3.2.1. The Standard Theory                                                     309

          3.2.2. What The Standard Theory Really Looks Like                  315

                    3.2.2.1.         The Level(s) of Application of The

                                         Binding Theory                                       316

                                         3.2.2.1.1.      Condition A                        316

                                         3.2.2.1.2.      Condition B                         320

                                         3.2.2.1.3.      Condition C                        325

                    3.2.2.2.         The Structural Notions Defining Binding     328

                                         3.2.2.2.1.      C-command or

                                                              M-command?                     329

                                         3.2.2.2.2.      What does Co-indexation

                                                              Really Mean?                      329

                    3.2.2.3.         Some Further Peculiarities of Condition C   335

                    3.2.2.4.         A Precise Statement of The Binding

                                         Theory                                                              337

          3.2.3. Domains of Possible Binding--A Revised Binding Theory   339

          3.2.4. Letting The ECP Do Some Binding Work                         343

3.3.    Argument Cliticization in Romance                                             346

          3.3.1. Third Person Clitic Morphology                                      346

          3.3.2. Third Person Clitic Placement                                         349

                    3.3.2.1.         Spanish                                                   349

                    3.3.2.2.         Galician                                                   351

                    3.3.2.3.         French                                                    355

          3.3.3. The Order of Clitics                                                      358

                    3.3.3.1.         Double Object Constructions in Galician     358

                                         3.3.3.1.1.      The Data                            359

                                         3.3.3.1.2.      Dative Shift As

                                                              Passivization                       363

                    3.3.3.2.         An ECP Account                                      367

          3.3.4. Clitic Climbing                                                              373

                    3.3.4.1.         Clitics as Scope Markers                           374

                                         3.3.4.1.1.      A De Re vs. a De Dicto

                                                              Interpretation                      374

                                         3.3.4.1.2.      The Scope Principle and

                                                              The Path Containment

                                                              Condition                            378

                                         3.3.4.1.3.      Scope Interactions and

                                                              Clitic Climbing                    382

                    3.3.4.2.         Domains of Clitic Climbing                       387

                                         3.3.4.2.1.      A Binding Theory Approach 387

                                         3.3.4.2.2.      The Local Binding Condition 390

                                         3.3.4.2.3.      Some Consequences of The

                                                              Local Binding Condition       392

                    3.3.4.3.         Clitic Movement as Syntactic Incorporation 399

                                         3.3.4.3.1.      Clitics as Determiners          400

                                         3.3.4.3.2.      Reanalysis as LF

                                                              Incorporation                      404

3.4.    Binding Conditions Revisited                                                     419

          3.4.1. Condition A Effects                                                       419

                    3.4.1.1.         Anaphoric Clitics                                      419

                                         3.4.1.1.1.      Se/Si Comes First                420

                                         3.4.1.1.2.      Se/Si is a Subject                 423

                                         3.4.1.1.3.      Local Binding as Antecedent

                                                              Government                        425

                                         3.4.1.1.4.      An Exception to "Se/Si

                                                              Comes First"                       427

                                         3.4.1.1.5.      Se/Si Is an Expletive            429

                                         3.4.1.1.6.      Indexation of Se/Si              430

                                         3.4.1.1.7.      Se/Si in Causative

                                                              Constructions                     433

                    3.4.1.2.         Subject Oriented Anaphors                        437

                    3.4.1.3.         Object Oriented Anaphors                         440

                    3.4.1.4.         Long Distance "Picture-DP" Anaphors        445

          3.4.2. Condition B Effects                                                       452

                    3.4.2.1.         A Further Lack of Complementarity

                                         between Pronominals and Anaphors           453

                    3.4.2.2.         Volitional Predicates                                  456

                                         3.4.2.2.1.      Some Counterexamples        457

                                         3.4.2.2.2.      De Re Volitional Predicates   460

                    3.4.2.3.         Exceptional Case Marking Sites                 468

          3.4.3. Condition C Effects                                                       472

                    3.4.3.1.         Determined vs. Open Nominals                473

                    3.4.3.2.         Names vs. Variables                                 475

                    3.4.3.3.         Condition C is Sensitive to Determiners       481

                    3.4.3.4.         De Dicto vs. De Re and Condition C           488

                    3.4.3.5.         Types of Antecedents of R-expressions      491

                    3.4.3.6.         Variables and The Local Binding Condition  497

3.5.    Conclusions and Further Questions                                           502

End Notes                                                                                         506

REFERENCES                                                                                   524