LINGUIST List 23.2491
Fri May 25 2012
Diss: Syntax: Huhmarniemi: 'Finnish A'-movement: Edges and islands'
Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang
<xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 25-May-2012
From: Saara Huhmarniemi <saara.huhmarniemi
helsinki.fi>
Subject: Finnish A'-movement: Edges and islands
E-mail this message to a friend
Institution: University of Helsinki
Program: Cognitive Science
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Saara Huhmarniemi
Dissertation Title: Finnish A'-movement: Edges and islands
Dissertation URL:
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-7712-8
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Dissertation Director:
Anne Vainikka
Pauli Brattico
Dissertation Abstract:
This thesis investigates Finnish interrogative sentences and similarconsructions from the perspective of biolinguistics and the MinimalistProgram (Chomsky 1995, Chomsky 2000). Finnish interrogatives display one ofthe elementary properties of natural language: grammatical movement fromone position to another. The movement of the question phrase in aninterrogative sentence can be seen as an instance of a more generalA′-movement that is typically triggered by discourse factors. The aim ofthis thesis is to establish an overall view to the A′-movement phenomena inFinnish that functions as a basis for future research on these topics.
The focus of the investigation is on two syntactic phenomena: the syntacticedge position that is the target of A′-movement and island conditions thatrestrict movement to this position. In Finnish interrogative sentences, thequestion phrase targets the edge of a finite clause. However, the presenceof an edge position can be observed in a variety of phrases in Finnish. Aparticular emphasis of this thesis is on phrases that undergo pied-piping,that is, movement of a larger constituent that contains the interrogativeelement. It is argued that the position of the wh-phrase at the edge is anecessary pre-requisite for pied-piping in Finnish wh-questions andrelative clauses. With this respect, Finnish follows the existingcross-linguistic generalizations on pied-piping. Furthermore, the Finnishrecursive pied-piping displays properties of successive cyclic movement viaedges of pied-piped phrases, resulting to a form of snowball movement.
As a result of a detailed investigation on the syntactic constructions,this thesis provides an inventory of pied-piped phrase types in Finnish anda discussion on the different mechanisms for obtaining the edge positionamong phrases. Among the island phenomena investigated are the adjunctisland condition and constraints on subject extraction. It is proposed thatFinnish obeys the adjunct island condition and the availability of subjectextraction is sensitive to the presence of subject-predicate agreement,displaying a form of anti-agreement effect.
Page Updated: 25-May-2012