The Expletive Emergence in the Sentence Structure of Some Germanic Languages

Abstract

The article deals with the investigation of the reasons of expletive emergence in the structure of the sentence and its generation position. The expletive appearance in the sentence structure depends on the possibility of the associative φ-features checking in the TP projection and varies in the Germanic languages. In Icelandic, it occurs in two positions: with or without an external argument (associative). The external argument, if present, behaves as the subject, it moves to the position of the TP (the external argument cannot remain in situ). In this case, the expletive is introduced into the sentence structure only not to allow the associative to move to the position [Spec, СP]. If the sentence contains only the internal argument of the predicate, the expletive may stay nin situ (vP) or move to [Spec, CP] position. In these sentences, the appearance of the expletive is considered to prevent the associative movement to CP projection, and to guarantee of the presence of the subject in the n absence of an external argument. In other Germanic languages, the expletive is a formal argument that moves tothe [Spec, TP] position to be marked with case and to check EPP-feature. The problem of compulsory filling of the [Spec, TP] position in the Germanic languages remains unresolved. Comparing the sentence word order and the position of the subject in the Germanic languages, we can conclude that SVO- type languages have a EPP-feature; in languages with the V2-rule and SOV word order, this feature is deleted selectively (the subject may be generated in the [Spec, CP] position).