Abstract
We present evidence to argue that the object raising in epistemic modal constructions in Chinese is A-movement. The consequence of this claim is the apparent violation of Minimal Link Condition. Following Chomsky’s (2007 & 2008) feature inheritance hypothesis, we argue that the T of the TP complement of epistemic verbs does not contain any unvalued phi-features due to the absence of the CP-layer, and contains only the inherent EPP structural requirement, which, in itself, does not impose minimality restriction on the search of the goal. The implication of this analysis is three-fold: (i) the checking-based approach to A-movement does not hold in Chinese, (ii) Chinese employs the delayed version of Phase Impenetrability Condition, and (iii) activity condition in Chinese is subject to factor(s) other than Case.
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