Resumptive Chains in Restrictive Relatives, Appositives and Dislocation Structure

H. Demirdache, 1991

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This thesis proposes that wh-operators in (headed) restrictive and non-restrictive relatives are resumptive chains.  A resumptive chain can have +wh-features or –wh-features.  If it has –wh-features, it can be either a null pronoun or an overt pronoun.  It can have either of the two interpretations pronouns have.  Thus, in restrictive relatives, it has a bound variable interpretation.  In appositive relatives, it is a referring pronoun (or what Evans (1982) calls an E-type pronoun).  This resumptive chain can be created at S-structure or at LF.  In particular, it is argues that what has been called (misleadingly) in the literature a ‘resumptive pronoun’ in languages like Hebrew or Irish (i.e. a pronoun that freely alternates with gaps in certain positions) is an instance of in-situ relativisation: an overt –wh-pronoun in-situ at S-structure creates an operator-variable chain at LF.  It does not have have the same range of interpretations as a trace created at S-structure because it is not a variable at S-structure.  In contrast, the wh-operator in appositive relatives never has a bound variable interpretation.  An analysis of appositives is proposed based on Emonds’ (1979) Main Clause Hypothesis.  It is argued that appositive clauses are lifted at LF out of the constituent containing their antecedent and then adjoined to the root clause.  The relation between the appositive pronoun and its antecedent is treated on a par with anaphora across discourse, except in one respect: anaphora is obligatory precisely because of the wh-features of the pronoun.  Finally, it is argued that, under the above proposal, the (Clitic)Left-dislocation construction discussed by Cinque (1991) must be a wh-movement construction.  The clitic-pronoun is a –wh-operator in-situ at S-structure, on a par with the pronoun that appears in Hebrew relatives.  However, it has the syntactic properties and the interpretation of the +wh-operator in (English) appositive relatives.

Thesis Supervisor:         Noam Chomsky

Title:                             Institute Professor

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Table of Contents

Chapter I          Resumptive Pronouns                                                                           10

            1          Introduction:  An assymetry between relativisation and question

                                                formation                                                                      10

            2          What are resumptive pronouns?                                                            12

                        2.1       Chao & Sells (1983) and Sells’ (1984)                         12

                        2.2       The proposal                                                                            16

                        2.3       S-structure wh-movement of resumptive pronouns                    19

            3          The landing site of the resumptive pronoun                                             23

            4          The question marker in Egyptian Arabic                                                33

            5          Class 1 and Class 2 languages                                                   35

                        5.1       The structure of relatives in class 2 languages                 37

                        5.2       Resumptive pronouns in interrogatives                           42

            6          A resumptive pronoun is an operator-variable chains created by

                        wh-movement                                                                                      48

Chapter II        Weak Crossover, Parasitic Gaps and Across the Board

Constructions                                                                                       50

1          Introduction                                                                              50

2          Resumptive pronouns and weak crossover effects                     51

            2.1       The lack of weak crossover with resumptive

pronouns                                                                      51

                                    2.2       Why are resumptive pronouns immune to weak

                                                crossover?                                                                    53

                                    2.3       Resumptive pronouns are not immune to weak

                                                crossover                                                                     54

                                    2.4       Pronoun fronting in Hebrew                                          56

                                    2.5       Anaphoric epithets                                                        57

                        3          The leftness condition                                                                60

                                    3.1       Theories of weak crossover                                          60

                                    3.2       The strict c-comman Condition and the lack of

                                                WCO with resumptive pronouns                                   62

                                    3.3       ATB and parasitic gap constructions                             65

                        4          A theory of weak crossover                                                      72

                                    4.1       Stowell’s theory of WCO                                             74

                                    4.2       Back to Hebrew ATB and parasitic gap

constructions                                                                77

                                    4.3       A theory of weak crossover                                          80

                                    4.4       Back to the lack of weak crossover with resumptive

                                                pronouns                                                                      83

                                    4.5       Back to anaphoric epithets in Irish                                 84

                                    4.6       PRO gates                                                                    87

                        5          Back to coordinate structures and parasitic gap

constructions in Hebrew                                                            89

5.1       Coordinate structures                                                    89

5.2       The embedded/non-embedded contrast                        93

5.3       Parasitic gaps                                                               95

                        6          Reconstruction effects                                                               97

                        7          An assymetry in the interpretation of gaps and resumptive

                                    pronouns                                                                                  98

Chapter III       Appositive Relatives                                                                             103

            1          Introduction                                                                                          103

            2          Emonds’ (1979) “Main Clause Hypothesis”                                          105

            3          An analysis of appositive relatives                                                          108

                        3.1       Appositives relatives are base-generated as embedded

                                    clauses                                                                                     108

                        3.2       Appositive relatives are interpreted as main clauses at LF          112

                        3.3       Main clause properties of appositives                                        115

                        3.4       Predication or anaphora?                                                          116

                        3.5       The relative pronoun in appositives is a resumptive

pronoun                                                                                    120

                        3.6       Construing the resumptive pronoun with the head of the

                                    appositive                                                                                 121

                        3.7       The resumptive function and the quantificational function

                                    of wh-chains                                                                             122

                        3.8       The syntactic form of wh-words in English questions and

                                    relatives                                                                                    123

                        3.9       Resumptive chains                                                                    126

            4          Evidence for LF raising                                                             127

                        4.1       Why quantifiers cannot be the antecedent of an appositive         128

                        4.2       Quantifier scope and appositives                                               133

                        4.3       The scope of negation                                                               136

                        4.4       The opacity of appositives                                                         147

                        4.5       Counterexamples                                                                      148

                        4.6       The invisibility of appositives                                                     155

                                    4.6.1    Anaphor binding                                                           156

                                    4.6.2    Parasitic gaps                                                               158

                                    4.6.3    The lack of weak crossover effects                               160

            5          Conclusion                                                                                           161

Chapter IV       (Clitic)Left-Dislocation                                                              163

            1          Introduction                                                                                          163

            2          Clitic Left-Dislocation                                                               164

                        2.1       Introduction                                                                              164

                        2.2       Cinque’s (1990) analysis of clitic left-dislocation                        165

                        2.3       Referentiality                                                                             167

            3          Why quantifiers cannot be (clitic)left-dislocated                         173

                        3.1       Clitic-left-dislocation, left-dislocation and appositive

                                    relatives                                                                                    173

                        3.2       Is Clitic-left-dislocation a wh-movement construction?   175

                        3.3       Clitic left-dislocation and left-dislocation                                    177

                        3.4       Quantifier raising                                                                       179

                        3.5       D-linking                                                                                  183

            4          An analysis of clitic left-dislocation                                                        185

                        4.1       Parasitic gaps                                                                           186

                        4.2       Why are clitics incompatible with topicalisation and

                                    wh-questions?                                                                          189

                        4.3       Weak crossover                                                                       191

            5          Clitic left-dislocation and island effects                                       194

                        5.1       Resumptive pronouns and resumptive clitics                               197

                        5.2       Iatridou’s (1990) analysis of CLDL and island effects    200

                        5.3       Deriving island effects                                                   201

            6          Conclusion                                                                                           204