Prosodic Noun Incorporation: The Relationship between Prosody and Argument Structure in Niuean

Abstract

AbstractThis paper argues for a uniform X0‐raising analysis of VSO and VOS word order in Niuean. Accounting for VSO via X0 raising has a strong foundation in the V1 literature; the claim that X0 raising can also underlie VOS word order—as in Niuean's pseudo‐noun‐incorporation construction—is more controversial. This paper explains the VOS order of Niuean pseudo noun incorporation by appealing to a condition on prosodic well‐formedness, Argument‐φ, that requires a head and its internal argument(s) to form a unique phonological phrase. In order to satisfy this requirement, the incorporated argument undergoes prosodic restructuring into a position adjacent to the verb at PF. Since the verb arrives at its clause‐initial position via X0 raising, the syntactic input to the prosodic grammar is VSO, while the prosodic output is VOS.