Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and the Composition of the Left Periphery

Abstract

This book uses the cartographic theory to examine the left periphery of the English clause and compare it to the left-peripheral structures of other languages. The book argues that the dissimilar surface characteristics of these languages (primarily English and Romance, but also Gungbe, Hungarian, Hebrew, Dutch, and others) can be explained by universal constraints, and that the same structures apply across the languages. The book focuses on main clause transformations—movement operations that can only take place in main clauses.