LINGUIST List 17.354: Syntax: Reglero: 'A'-dependencies in Spanish a...'

LINGUIST List 17.354

Thu Feb 02 2006

Diss: Syntax: Reglero: 'A'-dependencies in Spanish a...'

Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant <meredithlinguistlist.org>

Directory 1. Lara Reglero, A'-dependencies in Spanish and Basque

Message 1: A'-dependencies in Spanish and Basque
Date: 01-Feb-2006
From: Lara Reglero <lreglerofsu.edu>
Subject: A'-dependencies in Spanish and Basque

Institution: University of Connecticut Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2004

Author: Lara Reglero

Dissertation Title: A'-dependencies in Spanish and Basque

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax
Subject Language(s): Basque (eus) Spanish (spa)
Dissertation Director:
Zeljko Boskovic Howard Lasnik William Snyder
Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation offers a study of A-dependencies in Spanish and Basque.More specifically, I analyze wh-movement, its interaction with Focus andTopic and the adjacency requirement between wh-phrases and the verb. Inorder to offer an analysis of these phenomena, I explore the followingtopics: in situ questions in Spanish, (multiple) question formation inBasque, and comparative subdeletion phenomena in Spanish. In chapter 2 Iprovide an account of the behavior of wh-in-situ questions in Spanish. Theanalysis pursued in the chapter reveals that the distribution of in situwh-phrases is governed by phonological properties. More precisely, in situwh-phrases in Spanish need to appear last within their intonational phrase.This generalization captures the behavior of all in situ wh-phrases in thislanguage. In chapter 3 I discuss the strategies Basque employs to formulatea multiple wh-question. I show that in the in situ strategy no wh-phraseremains in situ in the structure: the postverbal wh-phrase raises overtlyto check a topic feature. I offer an analysis for Multiple Wh-frontingstructures in which the wh-phrase closer to the verb is focalized and therest of the wh-phrases are topicalized. I propose that Basque has a headwith two features: Attract-all-discourse and Attract-1Topic (cf.Bošković 1999, 2002). Under this analysis, all wh-phrases bearingfocus or topic are moved to the front of the sentence. Furthermore, thehighest wh-phrase must move first. The fact that only one wh-phrase isfocalized follows from the adjacency requirement of a PF verbal affix. Inchapter 4 I examine the role of contrastive focus in comparativesubdeletion constructions in Spanish. Spanish allows ComparativeSubdeletion under the two following circumstances: obligatory verb gappingand word order alteration of the elements in the comparative clause("Inversion Strategy"). I capture the Spanish data by appealing to theclaim that there is a strong focus feature requirement in the "InversionStrategy". I claim that the NP containing the quantity term must undergoovert movement to check a strong focus feature. If the feature is notchecked, the derivation can still be rescued by deleting the strong featurein PF.