Standard conceptions of Locality aim to establish that a dependency between two positions may not span too long a distance. This book explores the opposite conception, Anti-Locality: Don’t move too close. The model of clause structure, syntactic computation, and locality concerns Kleanthes Grohmann develops makes crucial use of derivational sub-domains, Prolific Domains, each encapsulating particular context information (thematic, agreement, discourse). The Anti-Locality Hypothesis is the attempt to exclude anti-local movement from the grammar by banning movement within a Prolific Domain, a Bare Output Condition. The flexible application of the operation Spell Out, coupled with an innovative view on grammatical formatives, leads to a natural caveat: Copy Spell Out. Grohmann explores a theory of Anti-Locality relevant to all three Prolific Domains in the clausal layer as well as the nominal layer, and offers a unified account of Standard and Anti-Locality regarding clause-internal movement and operations across clause boundaries, revisiting successive cyclicity.

Table of contents

Preface xiii Abbreviations xv 1. Locality in grammar 1–37 2. Rigorous Minimalism and Anti-Locality 39–103 3. Anti-Locality in anaphoric dependencies 105–131 4. Copy Spell Out and left dislocation 133–177 5. The Anti-Locality of clitic left dislocation 179–197 6. Prolific Domains in the nominal layer 199–225 7. Successive cyclicity revisited 227–291 8. A note on dynamic syntax 293–319 9. Final remarks 321–323 References 325–351 Name index 353–357 Language index 359 Subject index 361–369