|
This dissertation discusses the structure of coordinate constituents. Two general observations guide the analysis: first, conjunctions are propositional entities that reflect sentential events. Second, the conjuncts have the same status: they are both specifiers. Once these two ideas are brought together, the structure of conjoined phrases becomes similar to that of other phrases, and at the same time its crucial properties are accounted for. In essence, the structure of conjoined phrases involves duplicating an inflectional node: the higher part of it is headed by a lexically unspecified category (the conjunction) which inherits its properties from the lower part, which is a regular node (tense, aspect, agreement, etc.) The specifier of each of these nodes host a conjunct.
The proposal leads to revise several areas of syntax: agreement, feature-checking, etc. I explore empirical evidence in favor of the hypothesis presented, such as partial agreement, switch-reference phenomena, coordination and aspect interaction, etc.
|
E-mail this message to a friend
