Showing papers in "Linguistic Inquiry in 2006"

Head Movement in Linguistic Theory

Abstract: In this article, I address the issue of head movement in current linguistic theory. I propose a new view of the nature of heads and head movement that reveals that head movement is totally compliant with the standardly suggested properties of grammar. To do so, I suggest that head movement is not a single syntactic operation, but a combination of two operations: a syntactic one (movement) and a morphological one (m-merger). I then provide independent motivation for m-merger, arguing that it can be attested in environments where no head movement took place

Broaden Your Views: Implicatures of Domain Widening and the “Logicality” of Language

Abstract: This article presents a unified theory of polarity-sensitive items (PSIs) based on the notion of domain widening. PSIs include negative polarity items (like Italian mai ‘ever’), universal free choice items (like Italian qualunque ‘any/whatever’), and existential free choice items (like Italian uno qualunque ‘a whatever’). The proposal is based on a ‘‘recursive,’’ grammatically driven approach to scalar implicatures that breaks with the traditional view that scalar implicatures arise via post- grammatical pragmatic processes. The main claim is that scalar items optionally activate scalar alternatives that, when activated, are then recursively factored into meaning via an alternative sensitive operator similar to only. PSIs obligatorily activate domain alternatives that are factored into meaning in much the same way.

Lexical Case, Inherent Case, and Argument Structure

Abstract: In addition to the division in Case theory between structural and non-structural Case, the theory must distinguish two kinds of nonstructural Case: lexical Case and inherent Case. Lexical Case is i...

The syntax of appositive relativization: On specifying coordination, false free relatives, and promotion

Abstract: Appositive relative clauses differ in some essential respects from restrictive relative clauses. I argue that appositive relatives and appositions can be put together as a third class of coordination denoting specification. Thus, an appositive relative is a specifying conjunct to the visible antecedent. It is a semifree relative with a pronominal head that is normally empty. Therefore, its internal syntax is equivalent to that of restrictive relatives; hence, there is one syntax for both types of relative clauses. In essence, it is the context of specifying coordination that accounts for the different behavior of appositive relatives. In the light of this analysis, the properties of appositive relatives (as opposed to restrictive relatives) are systematically reviewed.

Control in Icelandic and Theories of Control

Abstract: This article examines a pervasive argument against a movement approach to control based on Icelandic concord facts. We show that the argument does not undermine the movement approach when the facts are considered in their entirety. The facts divide into two basic groups: instances of quirky Case assignment and instances of structural Case sharing. The former require some theoretical adjustments regarding multiply Case-marked NPs in order to be incorporated into a movement approach. We show that the adjustments needed may be independently required, and may be even more problematic for alternative views on control.

Amnestying Superiority Violations: Processing Multiple Questions

Abstract: Two experiments investigated the acceptability of multiple questions. As expected, sentences violating the Superiority Condition were accepted less often than sentences obeying it. The status of the Superiority violations was not improved by the addition of a third wh, regardless of whether the third wh was an adjunct or an argument, though it was improved by the addition of a second question (e.g., and when). Further, in a small pilot study directly comparing a sentence with adjacent final wh-phrases that may induce a stress clash (I'd like to know who hid it where when) with a sentence violating Superiority but avoiding the final adjacent wh-phrases (I'd like to know where who hid it when), half the participants indicated that the Superiority violation sentence sounded better. This suggests that the status of some additional-wh sentences may appear to improve simply because the comparison sentence with adjacent final wh-phrases is degraded. Overall, the results of the studies suggest that there is no need to complicate syntactic theory to account for the additional-wh effect, because there is no general additional-wh effect.

The Nominative Puzzle and the Low Nominative Hypothesis

Abstract: Under the view of nominative Case taken by Chomsky (2000, 2001), one would expect nominative to be the marked or complex Case, being merged after accusative. In fact, however, it is the other way around, nominative preconditioning accusative and also being the Case of simple structures (unaccusative, etc.). The article argues that this Nominative Puzzle is not real, the nominative argument in fact being the first argument merged, raised across the accusative later in the derivation for independent reasons. This approach not only accounts for the dependency correlation between accusative and nominative (Burzio's Generalization), but also offers a derivational account of Condition A correlations (anaphors being merged higher than their “antecedents”). Importantly, it also makes it possible to explain Icelandic quirky constructions in terms of a general matching theory. In addition, the article develops a novel approach to Move as applying for the purpose of successful feature matching.

Licensing Configurations: The Puzzle of Head Negative Polarity Items

Abstract: LICENSING CONFIGURATIONS: THE PUZZLE OF HEAD NEGATIVE POLARITY ITEMS Elabbas Benmamoun University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Wang, William. 1967. Phonological features of tone. International Journal of American Linguistics 33:93–105. Yip, Moira. 1980. The tonal phonology of Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Yip, Moira. 1989. Contour tones. Phonology 6:149–174. Yip, Moira. 1995. Tone in East Asian languages. In The handbook of phonological theory, ed. by John Goldsmith, 476–494. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell. Yip, Moira. 2001. Phonological constraints, optimality and phonetic realization in Cantonese. In University College London working papers in linguistics 13, ed. by Corinne Iten and Ad Neeleman, 141–166. London: University College London, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

There Began to Be a Learnability Puzzle

Abstract: One of the fundamental puzzles language learners must solve is the mapping of a string of words onto a particular (correct) syntactic structure. In this article, I examine the problem of how learners should resolve the ambiguity presented by a string that could have either a raising or a control structure. I provide both logical and empirical arguments against the view that children should be biased to assume that such a string has a control structure. Instead, I propose two families of cues, based on a psycholinguistic experiment with adults, which can be used in a probabilistic manner to parse an ambiguous string and to categorize raising and control verbs.

The Morphophonology of Russian Adjectival Inflection

Abstract: In this article, we present the morphosyntactic structure underlying the Russian adjectival declension and the phonological rules that apply to it to derive the surface representations. We describe the two declension classes of Russian adjectives and argue that adjectives and nouns employ the same theme suffixes (-oj- and -o-) and, importantly, that choice of theme suffixalso determines choice of Case exponents. On this view, there is no special adjectival declension class; instead, Case exponents are shared between adjectives and nouns, and the choice of a "paradigm" is determined by the choice of the theme suffix. The article covers all adjectival inflections, including those of the possessives, demonstratives, interrogatives, and paucal numerals.

The Structure of Bounded Events

Abstract: To explain the semantic and syntactic compositionality of bounded interpretations, I propose here that events with a definite end point involve interpretation of the verb and either a bounded direct object or a bounded PP in the checking domain of Asp(ect)P, whereas unbounded events involve interpretation in a projection lower in the clause. This analysis explains the syntactic behavior of the ambiguous adverb quickly. In addition, it follows from the analysis that durative adjuncts are adjoined to VP, while time frame adjuncts are adjoined to AspP. Constructions involving preposition stranding, scope of only, parasitic gaps, and semantic restrictions on adjunct PP objects support this approach.

Intervention and Repair

Abstract: Recently, Merchant (1999, 2001), Lasnik (2001b, in press), and Fox and Lasnik (2003), using ellipsis data, and Boeckx (2001, 2003), Aoun, Choueiri, and Hornstein (2001), and McCloskey (2002), using resumption data, have revived Ross’s concerns (and some of his insights) and have drawn consequences for islands and chains. In particular, Merchant, Lasnik, and Boeckx have argued that extraction out of islands per se is not impossible, if appropriate repair strategies are used to save the otherwise illicit outputs at the interfaces. In this squib, we would like to highlight the potential theoretical relevance of repair strategies for a distinction first made by Chomsky (2000) between standard (relativized) minimality effects and defective intervention effects.

Adverbial Cognate Objects

Abstract: ADVERBIAL COGNATE OBJECTS Heizo Nakajima Gakushuin University nik, ed. by Roger Martin, David Michaels, and Juan Uriagereka, 89–155. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: A life in language, ed. by Michael Kenstowicz, 1–52. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Dindelegan, Gabriela. 1982. Structura sintactica nominal adverb (sau adjectiv) supin. Limba Română 31:5–13. Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen. 1994. The syntax of Romanian: Comparative studies in Romance. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Grosu, Alexander, and Julia Horvath. 1987. On non-finiteness in extraction constructions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 5:181–196. Hill, Virginia. 2002. The gray area of supine clauses. Linguistics 40: 495–517. Kayne, Richard. 1989. Facets of Romance past participle agreement. In Dialect variation and the theory of grammar, ed. by Paola Benincà, 85–104. Dordrecht: Foris. Rizzi, Luigi. 1976. Ristrutturazione. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 1:1–54. Rubin, Edward. 1995. Modification: A syntactic analysis and its consequences. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Stefănescu, Ioana. 1997. The syntax of agreement in Romanian. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics 14. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MITWPL. Whitman, John, and Cristina Dye. In preparation. On the status of Aand A′-movement. Ms., Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Wurmbrand, Susanne. 2001. Infinitives: Restructuring and clause structure. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Yim, Changguk. 2004. Locative alternation in English and Korean. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

A Simple Proof That Optimality Theory Is Computationally Intractable

Abstract: Adapting arguments from Eisner 1997, 2000, this remark provides a simple proof that the generation problem for Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 2004) is NP-hard. The proof needs only the binary evaluation of constraints and uses only constraints generally employed in the Optimality Theory literature. In contrast, rule-based derivational systems are easily computable, belonging to the class of polynomialtime algorithms, P (Eisner 2000).

Consonant Identity and Consonant Copy: The Segmental and Prosodic Structure of Hebrew Reduplication

Abstract: The article addresses two issues regarding Hebrew reduplication: (a) the distinction between reduplicated and nonreduplicated stems with identical consonants (e.g., minen ‘to apportion’ vs. mimen ‘to finance’), and (b) the patterns of reduplication (C1VC2VC2C, C1VC2C3VC3C,C1VC2C1CVC2C, and C1C2VC3C2CVC3C). These issues are studied from a surface point of view, accounting for speakers’ capacity to parse forms with identical consonants regardless of their base. It is argued that the grammar constructed by the learner on the basis of structural relations (base – output) can also serve for parsing surface forms without reference to a base.

On the “Undoing” Property of Scrambling: A Response to Bošković

Abstract: Boskovic (2004) argues that what defines scrambling in languages such as Japanese is its ‘‘undoing’’ property (Saito 1989). Boskovic (2004) and Boskovic and Takahashi (1998) argue that this ‘‘undoing’’ property shows the way for scrambling to count as a last-resort operation, instead of being purely optional as is widely believed. In this article, I give empirical evidence that ‘‘undoing’’ does not occur and that the reconstruction effect simply reflects a normal property of Ā-movements like wh-movement in English. I further show that the condition that governs optional scrambling is Fox’s (2000) Scope Economy.

The Interaction of Th/Ex and Locative Inversion

Abstract: THE INTERACTION OF TH/EX AND LOCATIVE INVERSION Milan Rezac University of the Basque Country and Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes/Naoned In English expletive constructions involving passive participles, the (highest) object surfaces in the pre-participial position (lb), rather than in the post-participial one expected from active constructions such as (la). Following Chomsky (2001), I refer to the pre-participial position as the Th(ematization)lEx(traction) position and to the movement if there is one as ThlEx.' The proper analysis of Th/Ex plays a crucial role in recent discussion of phases (Svenonius 2000, Chomsky 2001, Holmberg 2002), which harks back to its earlier role in discussions of cyclicity (see Milsark 1974:173-179, 235n6), of the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and specifier-head agreement (Lasnik 1992, 1999:chap. 4, Holmberg 1994, 2002), and of the analysis of expletive constructions (Milsark 1974, Burzio 1986:154-158, Boeckx 1999, Law 1999, Caponigro and Schutze 2003).

The Subject-Predicate Theory of There

Abstract: The “associate” NP in the English existential there-construction is a predicative NP, and there is its subject.

Tone Circles and Contrast Preservation

Abstract: ing away from the feature-geometric representations and concentrating only on the feature content of the tones, I suggest a plausible set of features for Xiamen tones in (4). (4) 44 – [U, h] 24 – [U, lh] 22 – [L, h] 21 – [L, hl] 53 – [U, hl] In the next section, I argue that a phonological approach to Xiamen tone sandhi is on the right track and that other approaches are not. 2 Tone Circles Are Phonological As mentioned above, one of the earliest phonological analyses of Xiamen tone sandhi was given by Wang (1967), who proposed the SPEtype rule in (5) to explain the tone sandhi facts. (5) [ high, fall] N [ high, fall] The unnaturalness of this rule has been used to suggest that the Xiamen tone circle is not an active phonological process and is best considered a paradigmatic replacement (Schuh 1978) or arbitrary substitution (Anderson 1978). Tsay and Myers (1996) consider tone circles a morphological rather than phonological process. Specifically, they argue that the citation and sandhi tones are allomorphs learned as pairs. Under this approach, any pairing of tones should be possible. However, as Hsieh (2005) points out, both native and borrowed words pattern consistently with respect to the Xiamen tone circle. Hsieh (1970) and Wang (1995) report that native speakers do not execute tone sandhi consistently for nonce words. They take this as evidence against the psychological reality of the tone sandhi circle as a phonologically active component of the grammar. Hsieh (2005) 3 As [24] is the only rising tone in the inventory, there is no a priori way to determine if it is an Upper or Lower register tone. Although Cheng (1968) and Yip (1989) essentially claim it is a Lower register tone, Chen (1987) and Lin (1994) tacitly assume it is an Upper register tone. I follow Chen and Lin and assume it is an Upper register tone. An LI reviewer points out that in a closely related dialect, Longxi, this tone is transcribed as [14], clearly placing it in the Lower register; however, this tone has an allotone, [25], which is arguably an Upper register tone. Although there is no strong empirical basis for considering [24] an Upper or Lower register tone, the analysis sketched here, if it turns out to be correct, provides theory-internal evidence that it is an Upper register tone. 134 S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N counters this claim on two fronts. Applying sandhi to the nonce words presented to speakers in the Hsieh 1970 study would result in an actual word in the language under consideration, so Hsieh (2005) argues that speakers may be reluctant to apply sandhi to a nonce word if it results in a real word. Wang controls for this by employing phonotactically impossible (but tonotactically possible) words, which can never result in a real word upon applying sandhi. Again, subjects do not reliably execute sandhi. Hsieh (2005) argues that since there is no set of candidates to compare such nonce words with, the tone sandhi cannot be computed. However, since phonological processes do seem to be active in nonce words in many of the world’s languages (Berko’s (1958) famous wug test, for example), one is hesitant to adopt an argument that would deny outright the applicability of phonological processes to nonce words. I believe a more important problem with this approach is that test subjects are being asked to execute phonological processes on phonotactically impossible words. Thus, from the arguments presented above, I conclude that results from Wang 1995 may be inconclusive. It should be noted that the current approach evaluates contrasts between possible but not necessarily existing words of the language. Theory-internal arguments against phonological explanations of the Xiamen tone circle rely on the inadmissibility of circular chain shifts in classical OT. Circular chain shifts are difficult to capture under a classical OT approach (in the sense of Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004). Indeed, it has been argued that circular chain shifts are categorically ruled out in this framework (∏ubowicz 2003, Moreton 2004). Moreton argues that only markedness can cause a change in a representation. Thus, circular chain shifts in which A changes to B and B changes to A are problematic. The first change (A N B) is possible only if A is more marked than B, and the second change (B N A) is possible only if B is more marked than A, resulting in a contradiction. Circular chain shifts, it would appear, are not possible in any version of OT in which faithfulness and markedness constraints are the only violable constraints (as in classical OT as illustrated here). It is not clear, however, that faithfulness and markedness are the only types of constraints available to Universal Grammar. As mentioned above, Alderete (2001) has argued for the existence of antifaithfulness constraints. In the current approach, I exploit a family of contrast preservation constraints proposed by ∏ubowicz (2003). Thus, once one admits the possibility of expanding classical OT beyond the standard repertoire of faithfulness and markedness constraints, several avenues 4 Perhaps what is needed is a set of phonotactically nonce words, whose sandhi forms are also nonce forms. This would most closely mirror the original wug test, as both wug and wugs are nonce forms. 5 Kirchner (1996) notes that chain shifts in general are difficult to capture under an OT framework. He proposes a solution to a vowel chain shift found in Nzbi, which makes use of local conjunction and distantial faithfulness. He admits, however, that such an approach cannot be carried over to the Xiamen tone circle. S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 135 become available for a phonological explanation of tone circles. Specifically, I argue here that PRESERVECONTRAST constraints coupled with markedness can account for tone circles that involve neutralization. Finally, from a typological perspective, Moreton (2004:159) asserts that tone circles are peculiar to this closely related set of dialects, suggesting that the extreme rarity of tone circles is evidence that they are not a phonological reality. Furthermore, on the basis of its similarity to the tone circle in the very closely related language Longxi, Chen (2000:42–45) suggests that the Xiamen tone circle is a historical accident. He observes that the tone circles of both Xiamen and Longxi are identical in terms of Middle Chinese tone categories, from which he concludes that the pattern found in modern Xiamen is not phonological, but the result of historical accident. Mortensen (2002), however, describes tone circles in two other languages, Jingpho and A-Hmong, which are not related to the Min dialect family, and were never in contact with the languages in that family. The existence of tone circles in languages unrelated to Xiamen strongly suggests that circular chain shifts are not a historical accident but a phonological reality. In this section, I have refuted many of the arguments against the position that tone circles are phonological. Classical OT does not permit circular shifts of any kind, and the contrast preservation account does not allow circular shifts that do not exhibit any kind of neutralization. The Xiamen tone circle, however, does show some neutralization: namely, the rising tone /24/ is absent from the set of sandhi tones. I exploit this fact and argue that the tone circle is kick-started by a highranked markedness constraint militating against rising tones. In the next section, I outline how the Xiamen tone circle can be thought of as an optimal solution to contrast preservation. 3 A Contrast Preservation Approach to Xiamen Tones ∏ubowicz (2003) proposes a family of contrast preservation constraints. Descriptively, she proposes that when a contrast is destroyed by a neutralization process, there is a tendency for it to be replaced by a different contrast. I propose that tone circles arise as a result of preserving contrast among tonal features and markedness. ∏ubowicz splits Eval into two stages. Stage I consists of two families of constraints, PRESERVECONTRAST and tokenized markedness; stage II consists of generalized faithfulness constraints. Furthermore, candidates do not consist of individual tokens, but of scenarios that illustrate transformation patterns. Briefly, a scenario is a minigrammar that shows mappings among phonological representations in an ‘‘all at once’’ fashion. Alternative scenarios show different configurations of the phonological representations and how they are connected. Sce6 Thanks to an LI reviewer for pointing out Chen’s discussion. 136 S Q U I B S A N D D I S C U S S I O N narios are shown in the tableaux later in this section and in example (6). (See ∏ubowicz 2003 for more details.) 3.1 PRESERVECONTRAST Constraints PRESERVECONTRAST output (PCOUT) constraints count one violation for every output that fails to maintain a contrast for a given feature. The scenario for Xiamen tones, shown in (6), incurs one violation for the pitch feature. The tone [L, h] incurs one violation for PCOUT(Pitch) because there is a loss in contrast in the pitch feature from the two input tones. Note, however, that the constraint PCOUT(Register) is not violated by this scenario. The two input tones to [L, h] do not contrast for the register feature. Since [L, h] is the only tone with more than one input, this is the only place in the scenario where violations of this type of constraint can be found.

Ellipsis and EPP repair

Abstract: The article discusses ellipsis constructions in the English language. The author examines a hypothesis proposed by linguist Jason Merchant about situations in which a subject can be suspended in an elliptical statement with the Extended Projection Principle. After going over the hypothesis, he then presents linguists Howard Lasnik and Myung-Kwan Park's critique of Merchant. He argues that their critique is unfounded. Finally he offers three arguments that support and expand upon Merchant's hypothesis.

Differences between the Wh -Scope-Marking and Wh -Copy Constructions in Passamaquoddy

Abstract: Several phenomena in Passamaquoddy clearly distinguish wh-scope marking with ‘what’ from an apparently similar wh-copy construction. These facts argue for a theory of wh-scope marking like that in Bruening 2004 (based on Dayal 1994), where the embedded question is the syntactic and semantic restriction on the matrix wh-word ‘what’. The wh-copy construction, in contrast, is best analyzed as spelling out multiple copies of a long-distance movement chain. This copy theory is extended to scope marking with tan and comparatives in Passamaquoddy.

Featureless Expressions: When Morphophonological Markers Are Absent

Abstract: Ackema and Neeleman (2003) discuss three phenomena that arise in the context of agreement and pronominals: agreement asymmetries, cliticization, and null subjects. They develop a unified analysis for these phenomena, claiming that they all involve a process of weakening within prosodic domains. While we agree with their important insight that the PF interface is responsible for some of these phenomena, we will argue against their weakening analysis. We provide arguments that agreement asymmetries cannot be uniformly analyzed as involving the same processes as phonological cliticization or null subjects. We instead propose that the observed asymmetries arise because of the alternative forms of spelling out features at the PF interface.

Clitic climbing and the dual status of sembrare

Abstract: For some speakers of Italian (reported in Cinque 2004), Italian sembrare 'seem' has dual status On the one hand, it is a lexical verb, with an experiencer argument; on the other hand, it behaves like a "restructuring verb" In the latter case, sembrare is incompatible with an experiencer argument and it allows clitic climbing This article identifies several contexts in which clitic climbing is not possible with sembrare and offers an account in terms of Cinque's proposals about the functional hierarchy of the clause The article also examines sembler, the French cognate of sembrare, and argues, contra Cinque 2002, that it behaves like a lexical verb Finally, it shows that the two instantiations of Italian sembrare correspond to two verbs in Dutch: schijnen and lijken

Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs

Abstract: CASE CHECKING VERSUS CASE ASSIGNMENT AND THE CASE OF ADVERBIAL NPS Željko Bošković University of Connecticut On the basis of genitive of quantification (GQ) in Slavic, I argue in this squib that the Case-checking theory is empirically superior to the Case assignment theory. I also argue that Slavic GQ provides evidence that adverbial NPs (Larson’s (1985) bare NP adverbs) are not subject to the traditional Case Filter, and I suggest that the Case of such NPs is interpretable. During the discussion, I also examine how Casemarked modifying adjectives and noninitial NP conjuncts are Caselicensed. The squib is organized as follows. In section 1, I summarize the basic properties of Slavic GQ. In section 2, I show that GQ can tease apart Case checking and Case assignment. In section 3, I discuss Case properties of adverbial NPs.

Reply to Bhatt and Pancheva's “Late Merger of Degree Clauses”: The Irrelevance of (Non)conservativity

Abstract: According to Bhatt and Pancheva (2004), two effects they attribute to degree constructions (obligatory extraposition effects and scope rigidity effects determined by the superficial position of degree phrases/clauses) can be given a unified analysis in terms of an extension of Fox and Nissenbaum's (1999) analysis of extraposition in conjunction with the nonconservativity of (certain) degree words. We show that, under full preservation of Bhatt and Pancheva's theoretical assumptions, their account faces at least three problems: (a) one of the phenomena they propose to unify, the one involving scope effects, does not exist; (b) (non)conservativity is irrelevant to obligatory extraposition effects; and (c) contrary to their tacit assumption, Trace Conversion is at most an optional procedure for DegP chains. We propose an alternative, nonsemantic treatment of obligatory extraposition effects, which subsumes them under an independently needed adjacency constraint on prehead modifiers. Furthermore, we note that...

On the Existence of Null Complementizers in Syntax

Abstract: ON THE EXISTENCE OF NULL COMPLEMENTIZERS IN SYNTAX Hideki Kishimoto Kobe University Ohta, Kaoru. 1997. Tense in the subject raising constructions. In Japanese/Korean Linguistics 6, ed. by Ho-min Sohn and John Haig, 353–368. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications. Postal, Paul M. 1974. On raising. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Sakai, Hiromu. 1996. Clause reduction in Japanese. In Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics 2, ed. byMasatoshi Koizumi, Masayuki Oishi, and Uli Sauerland, 193–212. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 29. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MITWPL. Sakai, Hiromu. 1998. Raising asymmetry and improper movement. In Japanese/Korean Linguistics 7, ed. by Noriko Akatsuka, HajimeHoji, Shoichi Iwasaki, Sung-Ock Sohn, and Susan Strauss, 481–497. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications. Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1990. The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stowell, Tim. 1983. Subjects across categories. The Linguistic Review 2:285–312. Stowell, Tim. 1989. Subjects, specifiers, and X-bar theory. In Alternative concepts of phrase structure, ed. by Mark Baltin and Anthony S. Kroch, 232–262. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Stowell, Tim. 1991. Small clause restructuring. In Principles and parameters in comparative grammar, ed. by Robert Freidin, 182–218. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Tada, Hiroaki. 1992. Nominative objects in Japanese. Journal of Japanese Linguistics 14:91–108. Takahashi, Daiko. 2002. Determiner raising and scope shift. Linguistic Inquiry 33:575–615. Tanaka, Hidekazu. 2002. Raising out of CP. Linguistic Inquiry 33: 637–652. Uchibori, Asako. 1997. Opacity and subjunctive complements in Japanese. In Japanese/Korean Linguistics 6, ed. by Ho-min Sohn and John Haig, 399–414. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications. Zamparelli, Roberto. 1995. Layers in the Determiner Phrase. Doctoral dissertation, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.

Degree Phrase Inversion in the Scope of Negation

Abstract: In contrast to (1) and (2), both the normal ordering, (3a), and the inverted form (3b), are acceptable. That is, the inversion in (3b) is apparently optional. These facts raise the question of how the inversion in (3b) is licensed. In section 2, I discuss the licensing environments of NDI, noting that they pattern similarly to the licensing environments of negative polarity items (NPIs). Drawing on the parallelism between NDI and NPIs, I propose in section 3 that NDI licensing is a subcase of negative polarity licensing, with the landing site of the degree phrase movement headed by an NPI.

Glide Distribution in Classical Arabic Verb Stems

Abstract: The seemingly idiosyncratic distribution of glides in the weak verb stems of Classical Arabic is given a coherent analysis as the consequence of constraint interaction, as defined by Optimality Theory. At the core of the analysis are two constraint rankings that determine the vowels of the verb stem. One ranking, which ensures harmonic parsing of a low vowel over high vowels, is based on input/output faithfulness; the other ranking, which ensures harmonic parsing of high vowels over a low vowel, is based on intercandidate faithfulness, as defined by Sympathy Theory. These constraint rankings interact with generally defined markedness constraints to account for glide distribution in all measure I verb forms without specific reference to morphological contexts. As a result, the complex distribution of glides in Arabic is not typologically anomalous.

Raising to object in Japanese : A small clause analysis

Abstract: Carlson, Greg. 1987. Same and different: Some consequences for syntax and semantics. Linguistics and Philosophy 10:531–565. Fukui, Naoki, and Hiromu Sakai. 2003. The visibility guideline for functional categories: Verb raising in Japanese and related issues. Lingua 113:321–375. Fukui, Naoki, and Yuji Takano. 1998. Symmetry in syntax: Merge and Demerge. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 7:27–86. Haegeman, Liliane. 1994. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Oxford: Blackwell. Kishimoto, Hideki. 2001. Binding of indeterminate pronouns and clause structure in Japanese. Linguistic Inquiry 32:597–633. Pollock, Jean-Yves. 1989. Verb movement, Universal Grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20:365–424. Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1978. Nihongo no bunseki. Tokyo: Taishukan. Takano, Yuji. 2004. Coordination of verbs and two types of verbal inflection. Linguistic Inquiry 35:168–178. Watanabe, Akira. 2000. Remarks on head movement within VP shell. In Proceedings of the Nanzan GLOW: The Second GLOW Meeting in Asia, ed. by Yasuaki Abe, Hiroshi Aoyagi, Masatake Arimoto, Keiko Murasugi, Mamoru Saito, and Tatsuyo Suzuki, 461–485. Nagoya: Nanzan University, Department of Japanese.

On the Absence of Superiority and Weak Crossover Effects in Yoruba

Abstract: Many researchers, including Chierchia (1991), Chomsky (1995), Hornstein (1995, 2001), Huang (1995), Dayal (1996), Wiltschko (1998), Bo'ković (1999), and Barker and Shan (2004), have made diverse proposals about how to account for the unacceptability of examples such as (2). Most of these authors assume that there is a superiority effect in all languages. However, the contrast is not found in Yoruba and several other Niger-Congo languages, as shown in (3) and (4) (Manfredi and Oyelaran 2000; see also Adesola 2005).