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Title:
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Aspects of the Syntax of A-Movement: A study of English infinitival constructions and related phenomena
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Author:
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Norio Nasu
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Essex
, BA English Language & Linguistics Schemes
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Degree Date:
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2002
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Syntax
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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Andrew Radford
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Abstract:
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A long-standing assumption concerning movement is that A-movement applies in a successive-cyclic manner, making use of (an) intermediate landing site(s). The present study calls this assumption into question and explores the possibility that A-movement takes place in a single step. To this end, it examines the applicability of the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) in infinitival complement clauses from various perspectives. It also brings attention to bear on data from finite clauses to illuminate the discussion.
Although the EPP is commonly considered to be universal, its applicability in control and raising infinitival clauses is not immediately detectable by any directly visible means, partly because infinitival SpecTP is allegedly occupied by a phonologically empty category (either PRO or a copy) and partly because the EPP feature lacks a morphological reflex in contrast to other features like Case- and phi-features.
In an attempt to find independent evidence for or against EPP effects at intermediate stages of A-movement, this thesis deals with several phenomena which have been considered to support successive-cyclic A-movement such as floating quantifiers, scope reconstruction, and anaphoric binding. A close examination of these phenomena reveals that they can be accounted for without recourse to postulating copies in intermediate SpecTP positions.
So-called anti-reconstruction effects such as the lack of Condition C violations with A-movement not only reinforce this view but even suggest the absence of A-movement. However, the behaviour of idiom chunks and radical reconstruction phenomena strongly indicate the necessity of movement. It will be argued that these paradoxical requirements can be reconciled by eliminating intermediate stepts in A-movement.
Non-universality of the EPP is supported independently and cross-linguistically by correlations between agreement patterns and word order. It will be demonstrated (i) that partial agreement is associated with an incomplete phi-set of T, (ii) that different word orders are related to the presence/absence of the EPP effect and (iii) that a clause headed by phi-incomplete T does not necessarily exhibit an EPP effect.
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