Natalia Kondroshova presented her paper, entitled Quantificational Properties of ne-Wh items in Russian (co-authored with Radek Simik), at the 40th annual North East Linguistic Society Conference on Nov. 14th.
Tim Chou presented his paper, “Feature Inheritance and Object Raising in Epistemic Modal Constructions in Mandarin Chinese” at the 2009 Mid-America Conference on Linguistics held at the University of Missouri, Oct. 9-11.
Excerpt from the abstract:
Epistemic modals like yinggai ‘should’ in Chinese have been assumed to be main predicates taking a TP complement as in (1a) since the subject can undergo A-movement to matrix Spec-T as in (1b) (cf. [8]). Besides, Lin (to appear) argued that the embedded object can raise to the matrix clause as illustrated by (2). What makes (2) interesting is that it appears to violate the Minimal Link Condition (MLC). Lin (to appear) suggests that the object raising in (2) is an instance of A’-movement, and the MLC violation is only apparent. However, this paper presents arguments challenging an A’-movement analysis of (2). First, given that Weak Crossover Effect (WCO) is a typical diagnosis of A’-movement (*Whoi does [hisi mother] like ti?), if object raising in (2) is an instance of A’-movement, we should expect it to be ruled out by WCO. However, this prediction is not borne out as shown in (3). Second, if object raising in (2) is actually A-movement, it should be able to feed binding condition A (Johni seems to himselfi [ti to like Mary]). This prediction is borne out as evidenced by (4). (3) and (4) jointly indicate that the object in (2) is an A-movement targeting the matrix Spec-T, rather than an instance of A’-movement. However, we need to explain why object raising in (2), as A-movement, is not excluded by MLC in Chinese.
Following Chomsky’s idea of feature inheritance ([3] and [4]), the unvalued φ-features on T are inherited from the phase head C. I assume that the embedded T in (2) does not contain any unvalued φ-features due to the lack of the CP-layer. It only has the inherent EPP feature, which needs to have only its edge filled. Crucially, in the absence of unvalued φ-features, the EPP does not impose any restriction on minimality. It only needs to attract some active goal with unvalued features to Spec-T, regardless of minimality. What determines the minimality effect in the derivation is the probe-goal relation between unvalued features, not the EPP. For this reason, the embedded object wancan ‘dinner’ may raise to embedded Spec-T for EPP requirements, producing (5a). Next, the matrix T with the unvalued φ-features inherited from C probes for the closest goal wancan ‘dinner’ at the embedded Spec-T and attracts it to its specifier for EPP as in (5b) (= (2)). In sum, the EPP alone does not force the applicability of the MLC, and the apparent MLC violation of object raising in (2) results from the lack of unvalued φ-features on the embedded T. Note that the effect of the MLC in Chinese is still evidenced elsewhere, as in (5c). The probe-goal relation between the matrix T and Zhangsan at Spec-v* cannot be established since the head of the A-chain (wancani, ti) at embedded Spec-T intervenes. As a result, Zhangsan at Spec-v* cannot move to matrix Spec-T.
The analysis shown in this paper contributes to the long-standing debate on the motivation for A-movement in linguistic theory. Specifically, it presents evidence against the universality of a checking-based theory of A-movement (cf. [1], [5], and [6]) because even though the embedded T does not contain any unvalued features except for its inherent EPP structural requirement, argument raising still occurs. Moreover, the fact that the embedded object can raise to matrix Spec-T via embedded Spec-T in (2) indicates that Mandarin Chinese employs the delayed version of the Phase Impenetrability Condition in [2] as in (6) so that the object within the domain of v* is accessible to EPP on the embedded T. We argue that the employment of delayed PIC is related to the lack of Case-valuation by v* in Chinese (in contrast to English) as implied by the analysis of Icelandic in [7].
Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman have published:
Minimalist inquiries into child and adult language acquisition. (De Gruyter)
Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman (editors)
This book includes original research about the acquisition (L1, bilingualism) and acquisition/ learning (L2 or L3) of Brazilian and European Portuguese. It includes studies exploring both empirical/experimental and theoretical aspects of the acquisition of syntax, and its interfaces with morphology, with semantics/pragmatics, and with language change, with a focus on Minimalist approaches to language acquisition.
Sam Epstein, Hisa Kitahara and Daniel Seely presented their paper, “The Application of Transfer is Case-Sensitive and Deducible,” at the Conference on Minimalist Approaches to Syntactic Locality in late August
Abstract available as a .pdf file
Marlyse Baptista was invited by the Institute Camoes and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown University and by the Institute Camoes and the Department of Classical and Modern Languages at Rutgers University (Newark) to give the invited lecture: “Creoles in the 21st century: when creolistics intersects with cognitive psychology and genetics”
Dina Kapetangianni has been awarded a 2009-2010 Constantine Tsangadas Fellowship for research in post-Classical Greece.
Congratulations Dina!
Acrisio Pires received a UofM faculty grant and award to work on the research project “Acquisition of syntax: Implications for theories of language change and dialectal variation.”
The project aims at continuing experimental work testing adults (monolingual and bilingual heritage speakers), children and teenagers. The goal is to evaluate whether native knowledge of syntax and semantics can be affected by (late) exposure to a (standard) dialect showing grammatical properties which are no longer productive in colloquial/vernacular dialects.
Pires, Acrisio and Sarah G. Thomason. 2008. How Much Syntactic Reconstruction is Possible? In Principles of Syntactic Reconstruction, ed. G. Ferraresi and M. Goldbach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. p. 27-72.
Abstract:
This paper explores ways to synthesize methods from generative linguistics and historical linguistics to develop explanatory criteria that need to be satisfied by different attempts to carry out syntactic reconstruction. It addresses various questions such as (i) the need to define exactly what it means to reconstruct a language; (ii) characterizing the formal entities that count as the basic elements in the analysis of the empirical evidence for syntactic reconstruction, and whether the units of analysis and the elements that need to be reconstructed are formal entities of the same kind; (iii) whether it is possible to establish general principles for reconstructing syntax; (iv) to which extent the methodology adopted for the reconstruction of other properties of a linguistic system can be applied successfully to the reconstruction of syntax; and (v) identifying methodological criteria to assess the success of a syntactic reconstruction, and devise empirical tests for the reconstruction model.
Miki Obata and Sam Epstein presented their paper, “Building (Proper) Improper Movement Structures,” at the Ways of Building Structure conference held at the University of Basque Country, Nov. 13-14.
Abstract (.pdf)
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?’
