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Trouble on the left periphery
- Source :
-
Lingua . Jul2003, Vol. 113 Issue 7, p607. 36p. - Publication Year :
- 2003
-
Abstract
- Adjuncts may occur (by ‘adjunct preposing’) before a wh-interrogative clause which is a main clause, but not before one which is subordinate; for example: (i) Tomorrow what shall we do? (ii) I told you (*tomorrow) what we shall do. Why should the possibility of adjunct preposing vary between main and subordinate clauses? The pre-theoretical answer is obvious: the wh-word has the extra function in a subordinate clause of signalling the start of a subordinate clause, so like any other subordinator it must be the first element in its clause. Less obvious is how to capture this insight in a formal grammar, and the paper will show that this challenge favours flexible word-based grammars over the more familiar kind which assign a uniform clause structure. The paper considers and rejects a number of examples of the latter approach, especially that of Rizzi [Rizzi, L. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In: Haegeman, L. (Ed.), Elements of Syntax. A Handbook in Generative Grammer. Klewer, Dordrecht, pp. 281–337]. The proposed solution is based on enriched dependency structure (Word Grammar) which makes head-hood ambiguous in certain constructions. In particular, the head of a wh-interrogative may be its finite verb when it is a main clause but must be the wh-element when it is subordinate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Subjects :
- *COMPARATIVE grammar
*ENGLISH language
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00243841
- Volume :
- 113
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Lingua
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 9289372
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(02)00086-4