Presentation: The Vacuous Movement Hypothesis
Marlyse Baptista and Miki Obata presented their paper, “The Vacuous Movement Hypothesis: On Complementizers and Extraction Patterns in Creoles” at the Formal Approaches to Creole Studies conference in Tromsoe, Norway.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the lack of ‘that-trace’ effects in creoles and non-creoles in an attempt to fine-tune minimalist accounts that rely on the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC) and the Vacuous Movement Hypothesis (VMH), (i.e., Ishii, 2004). We argue against the VMH and propose that in some of the languages under consideration, we have empirical evidence that in subject wh-extractions, the subject does not remain in situ but raises to Spec of C. If correct, this is a challenge to theory-internal considerations such as the economy condition that stipulates that simpler operations are more optimal, thus chosen over more complex ones. The implications are also important for creole languages, as those under study are clearly opting for more complex operations involving both Agree and Move over Agree alone. We study extraction patterns and complementizer behavior in both matrix and embedded wh-questions, as shown in (1) and (2). For the latter, assuming that derivations are evaluated locally, our analysis that the subject wh-phrase raises to Spec-C entails that it is the edge of C in the embedded phase and accessible to operations at the matrix vP phase and higher. This analysis makes the correct prediction that in the languages under study, the complementizer may be overt in the case of subject extraction. Our proposal for languages such as Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) in which no that-trace effects are observed, we argue that several steps in the derivation must be stipulated: First, we stipulate that the P-feature of C in such languages are specific and that both the C probe and the wh-phrase goal are specified with a topic feature that upon agreeing, match. This operation accounts for the Agree phase of the derivation. To account for the fact that the wh-subject phrase does not remain in situ in Spec of T but raises, we propose that the wh-phrase being the edge of CP, it is accessible to operations at the matrix vP phase. This allows us to predict that the type of utterances exemplified in (2) are acceptable in CVC.
Given the empirical evidence laid out above, what we argue for CVC is that in this particular language as well as in a number of other creole and non-creole languages, the Q-feature and EPP feature of C and the wh-feature of the wh-phrase are both strong: We assume that that C[Q] obligatorily carries a strong [uwh] feature which checks with the wh-expression it c-commands. Since [uwh] on C is strong, the wh-phrase must move to a local position with C and given the phrasal nature of who, this local position is Spec of C. Ki could be argued to be a reflex of the Move operation and to be a non-defective P feature.
This paper is organized as follows: In the first section, we review the pre-minimalist accounts of the ECP approach to that-trace effects. In the second section, we present the recent minimalist proposals based on the PIC and VMH. In the third section, we introduce empirical evidence from several creole and non-creole languages against VMH. In the fourth section, we offer a parametric model of extraction variation observable in the languages under study that is reducible to the presence versus absence of overt complementizers. The fifth and last section synthesizes our findings.
Examples:
(1) a. Kuze ki bu odja? (Cape Verdean Creole)
what ki you saw
‘What did you see?’
b. Kuze ki maria-bu?
what ki upset+you
‘What upset you?’
(2) Kenhi ki bu kuda ki kaza ku Maria?
who ki you think ki marry with Maria
‘Who do you think married Maria?’