NTHU Linguistics Fall 2014 Colloquium 3 (12/15) Structure building by domains—evidence from size restructuring Susi Wurmbrand University of Connecticut Since the seminal works by Rizzi and Aissen & Perlmutter many important studies of restructuring/clause union have been provided in various generative frameworks. Due to the variability of contexts that allow restructuring (both within and across languages), most studies are restricted to specific languages and the conclusions reached in those works (e.g., about the size of restructuring infinitives or the mechanisms creating restructuring effects) are often contradictory. In this talk, I provide an overview of restructuring in 23 typologically diverse languages, and I argue that rather than a single restructuring parameter there are specific points of variation that conspire to create different degrees of restructuring. The cross-linguistic distribution of three restructuring properties (long object movement, clitic climbing, inter-clausal scrambling) shows that two types of restructuring need to be distinguished: voice restructuring, which determines whether a language does or doesn’t allow long object movement (such as long passive), and size restructuring, which regulates the distribution of clitic climbing and scrambling. In this talk, I concentrate on size restructuring, which I hypothesize to be available universally. Following Grohmann (2003), I adopt the view that clauses are composed of three domains (A’-domain, tense domain, and thematic domain), and that size restructuring arises when the tense and/or A’-domains are not projected. The cross-linguistic differences in the availability of clitic climbing and inter-clausal scrambling are attributed to different target positions of these operations: the landing site of clitics/scrambling can be within the theta-domain, the tense domain, or the A’-domain (Grohmann’s theta, phi, and omega domains, respectively). Assuming, following Rizzi (2006), that clitic/scrambling positions create freezing configurations, restructuring effects then only arise when the target position of clitics/scrambling is within a domain that can be omitted as part of size restructuring. If the target position is in a domain lower than the domain(s) affected by size restructuring, restructuring effects do not arise. I show that this model correctly predicts the different degrees of size restructuring that have been observed cross-linguistically, and provide supporting evidence from a variety of properties and differences among languages.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:38:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015