Verb Raising and Null Complementizers

Abstract

Abstract Stowell (1981) and Kayne (1981) provided a principled account for the asymmetry between (la) and (le). In the framework of the principles and parameters theory (Chomsky 1981), they claimed that not only traces left by movement but also empty Cs must be licensed by Empty Category Principle (ECP). Stowell (1981) then attributed the asymmetry to ECP by claiming that the N is semantically in apposition to its sentential complement and does not assign a θ -role to it; since θ -role assignment is a prerequisite for proper head government, N cannot be qualified as a proper head governor. However, the sentential complement in (2) is clearly not in apposition to the N but should be regarded as the internal argument of the N, since it is the proposition to be proved and the proof can refer to the process of proving the proposition.