Selecting complementizers

Abstract

The present article considers complementizers in their dual capacity of being selected by a matrix predicate and of selecting a clause. With respect to the first point, selection may also be satisfied non-locally by some other element in the matrix clause, such as negation, question or tense/modality. Based on data from Modern Greek (MG) and English, it is shown that both local (by the predicate) and non-local (by another head) selection is best understood once we consider the lexical properties of the complementizers involved. Following Manzini and Savoia (2007a, 2007b) on Romance, it is argued that MG (and English) complementizers are nominal elements of different sorts (indefinites, polarity items or definites) whose distribution and interpretation is determined accordingly. With respect to the second point, it is argued that complementizers like MG oti/ pu ‘that’ or an (‘if’) merge outside the embedded clause and operate over (a) proposition(s), while na (and English to) merges inside its own clause, leaving the proposition open and interacting with control and raising phenomena. This approach has implications for the role of interpretable features and Agree in the grammar.