Restricting sideward movement : the course of the derivation and the directionality of movement
"In this dissertation, an account is provided of the restrictions on sideward movement through normal derivational processes and well-motivated principles of the computational system. A syntactic operation such as sideward movement is powerful within a theory, so it must be properly restricted to avoid overgeneration, specifically regarding island constraints on movement. Parasitic gap constructions (Nunes 1995, 2001, 2004, 2012; Haida and Repp 2012) and relative clauses (Nunes 2004, Henderson 2007) have both been identified as structures which might be better analyzed using sideward movement. These analyses give a view of the explanatory power that sideward movement can provide, but also highlight the need to be able to restrict such an operation. Chapter 2 examines previous accounts of sideward movement in parasitic gap constructions, and discusses how these theories fail to account for some of the restrictions necessary for sideward movement. In addition, the restrictions these theories do have can be shown to suffer from looking ahead in the derivation, as well as a lack of sufficient motivation from aspects of the computational system. In chapter 3 a new analysis for sideward movement in parasitic gaps is proposed which can solve these problems. This analysis of sideward movement is built upon the requirements of the cyclic, general application of Spell-out, which can be motivated independently through principles of efficient computation. From these principles, potential phase architectures are explored, where the timing and triggers of Spell-out are varied, including what syntactic categories must serve as phase heads. After removing those architectures in which adjunct islandhood is predicted to be violated, as well as those in which a sideward movement account of parasitic gaps is impossible due to Spell-out, only one possible phase architecture remains. Within this architecture, restrictions on parasitic gap extractions are derived from cyclic application of Spell-out on phases. Additionally, extraction from adjuncts within the parasitic gap construction is ruled out by the demands on the course of the derivation and inaccessibility through the generic application of the Spell-out operation. Chapter 4 examines how several structural restrictions on parasitic gaps can be implemented in this new system using Nunes' (2004) Form Chain operation. An account of the asymmetries between parasitic gap constructions and Across-the-Board constructions is provided following Munn's (2001) account that parasitic gap constructions are essentially weak islands to movement due do the semantic properties of the prepositional phrase. Lastly, chapter 5 shows how these principles can be extended to understanding the derivation of relative clauses, another area in which sideward movement has been suggested to play a role (Nunes 2004, Henderson 2007). A unique analysis of the derivation of relative clauses is provided which incorporates principles of sideward movement, Sportiche's (2016) theory of the operation Neglect, and new data regarding reconstruction into relative clauses. Taken as a whole, this dissertation shows how our theory of the syntactic computation can be enriched with more explanatory power when the processes of the derivation are atomized and are well-motivated by principles of efficient computation."--Pages ii-iii.
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- In Collections
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Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Copyright Status
- In Copyright
- Material Type
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Theses
- Authors
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Jalbert, Joseph
- Thesis Advisors
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Munn, Alan
- Committee Members
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Schmitt, Cristina
Morzycki, Marcin
Evans Wagner, Suzanne
- Date Published
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2016
- Program of Study
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Linguistics - Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree Level
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Doctoral
- Language
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English
- Pages
- ix, 210 pages
- ISBN
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9781369394009
1369394004
- Permalink
- https://doi.org/doi:10.25335/nycq-qg73