The Affectedness Constraint and AspP

Abstract

The present article is an attempt to derive the Affectedness Constraint on the assumption that delimited predicates project an Aspect node with the feature [+delimited], in the spirit of Tenny (1987) and Borer (1993). This feature triggers movement of a delimiting argument to the specifier of Asp for checking reasons. Also, it is assumed that a predicate needs a subject and that the specifier of Asp counts as subject of the predicate from which Asp has been projected. If affectedness constructions are distinguished by the fact that their external argument is missing, having been lexically oppressed, it follows that a derivation converges iff an internal argument can be promoted to subject position; externalization of the internal argument can be driven only by delimited predicates, because only a delimiting object can be triggered to move to the specifier of Asp [+delimited]. The article concentrates on an affectedness construction in Swedish: have of possession + DP + passive participle. However, it will be argued that the solution carries over to other affectedness constructions.