Right Node Raising, coordination and the dynamics of language processing

Abstract

This paper proposes an account of Right Node Raising (RNR) within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (DS). The problematic properties of this construction are shown to emerge naturally from a theory that defines natural language syntax as the direct reflection of how Logical Forms are built up in time as the words of a string are processed. Within this framework, all syntactic processes, including lexical actions, are defined in terms of how partial logical structures are updated. An asymmetric account of coordination is given using the concept of linked structures, whereby the (partial) analysis of a tree representing the propositional content of one clause forms the context within which another is constructed. This approach, together with the same mechanism that is used to analyze right dislocated expressions such as subject inversion in pro-drop languages, is shown to provide an analysis of Right Node Raising, under the additional assumption that the distinctive intonation pattern of the construction licenses the postulation of segmentally empty, pronominal-like elements. The identification of the content of these is established through the analysis of the right dislocated expression where crucially the update that this provides is sensitive to the properties of the second conjunct only.