Symmetric Merge and Local Instability: Evidence from Split Topics

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, I argue against the standard analysis of so‐called split topics in German as discontinuous noun phrases (van Riemsdijk 1989). Building in part on Fanselow 1988, I show that the construction rather involves two morphosyntactically autonomous nominal constituents that are predicatively related in underlying form. This predication is syntactically unstable, however. Merge of two XPs within a single argument or adjunct position yields a symmetric structure for which no label (“head”) can be detected by Minimal Search (“for any syntactic object {α,β},α is the head if α is a lexical item”; see Chomsky 2008). Therefore, one of the two noun phrases must move at the phase level in order to render the structure asymmetric; in case the stranded noun phrase is elliptical, the impression of a discontinuous constituent arises. By providing a principled explanation for split topicalization in these terms, the analysis furnishes evidence for an architecture in which Merge applies freely (pace recent claims to the contrary, e.g., in Kayne 2010), and as an asymmetrizing device when applying internally (as movement), in the spirit of Moro 2000 and Chomsky 2013.