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