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Syntax: Advanced Forays – Extensions & Reflexions Marcel den Dikken Department of English Linguistics ELTE
SAFE® Savings → these are the main take-aways from SAFE® • the distinction among single-argument verbs between unaccusative/ergative and intransitive/unergative verbs in terms of the absence vs presence of a projection for ‘little v’ allows us to understand the major diagnostics for (un)ergativity in an explanatorily adequate manner • the inflectional structure of the clause recognises separate X-bar projections for T(ense) and Asp(ect) • the functional head I (sometimes labelled ‘Agr(eement)’) projects outside TP, and in finite clauses hosts either a modal or subject agreement • a functional projection for sentential negation (NegP) finds itself between I and TP
SAFE® Savings → these are the main take-aways from SAFE® • the subject of non-finite IPs is overt when Case can be assigned to it from the outside, by C (for) or the matrix verb, via Exceptional Case-marking (ECM) • while finite clauses in English must always have an overt subject, in infinitival and gerundial clauses the subject is often silent • the typology of nominal elements is defined by two binary features, [+anaphoric] and [+pronominal] • the silent subject of non-finite clauses whose structure is as large as CP is PRO, a [+anaphoric, +pronominal] ele- ment licensed by null Case, assigned from C • the silent subject of non-finite clauses no larger than IP is an NP-trace, a [+anaphoric, –pronominal] element left behind by raising
SAFE® Savings → these are the main take-aways from SAFE® • the null pronoun pro fills the [–anaphoric, +pronominal] cell in the typology of silent nominal types • the [–anaphoric, –pronominal] cell in the typology is filled by Ā-bound traces (aka variables), left behind by move- ment into an Ā-position – incl. wh-movement, focus front- ing, topicalisation, and null operator movement (tough- movement, parasitic gap constructions, wh-less relatives) • empty categories are subject to a generalised licensing constraint: the Generalised Empty Category Principle – NP-traces are A-bound in their local domain – other phrasal traces are locally Ā-bound – PRO is assigned null Case and must not be bound – pro is locally identified by person/number features
SAFE® Savings → these are the main take-aways from SAFE® • for relative clauses there are two major approaches on the market: the ‘head-raising’ and ‘head-external’ anal- yses • all seemingly unbounded movement dependencies pro- ceed via a succession of strictly local movement steps – successive-cyclic movement • connectivity and island effects serve as major diagnostics for (successive-cyclic) movement (though especially the status of anaphor connectivity as a diagnostic for move- ment is controversial in light of the possibility of logophor- ic construal of reflexives contained inside noun phrases) • some material pronounced in a clause-internal position undergoes covert movement (e.g., Quantifier Raising) to the left periphery of the clause, in post-Spell-Out syntax
Syntax: Advanced Forays – Extensions & Reflexions Marcel den Dikken Department of English Linguistics ELTE
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