Criterial Freezing Research Articles

Partial Wh-Movement in Indonesian, Criterial Freezing, and Sub-Extraction

Abstract This paper develops a new analysis of partial wh-movement in Indonesian, a construction which raises seemingly challenging problems for criterial freezing. It is proposed that partially-moving wh-phrases in Indonesian are structured as focused expressions properly containing a wh-interrogative phrase. It is argued that the derivation of partial wh-movement in Indonesian involves sub-extraction, or movement out of a moved element, to evade a freezing violation that would otherwise ensue. More specifically, it involves focus movement of the focused XP to the intermediate non-interrogative C-system, followed by sub-extraction of the QP from the XP to the matrix interrogative C-system. The analysis receives independent empirical support from the amelioration of freezing effects observed in focused wh-questions in Japanese.

Past participle agreement in French and Italian: A two-Agree analysis

In this study, past participle agreement (PPA) patterns in French and Italian are explained based on recent minimalist notions involving minimal search and labeling. For minimal computation, Agree minimally values a participle and an in-situ object (Minimal Agree). Hence, the participle is spelled out in a default form. If an object is displaced, a participle can choose to Agree with the object’s copy in its SPEC. Since the Agree operation is coupled with labeling, it fully values the participle (Full Agree), resulting in morphological agreement. In many cases, the optionality of PPA results from the participle’s free selection between the two types of Agree. The proposed analysis also deals with cases where PPA is either obligatory or absent. First, a derived subject obligatorily triggers agreement since Full Agree applies to the subject to label the so-called TP node, which also affects the participle. Second, Italian 3rd person clitic objects control agreement obligatorily, which is attributed to their internal structure. Third, agreement with a wh-object is absent in Italian because of criterial freezing. Since Full Agree is part of criterial licensing, a wh-phrase cannot select this option until it reaches its final criterial position unless some form of reconstruction is available.

In favour of the low IP area in the Arabic clause structure

Empirical evidence is provided for the existence of a discourse-related area between TP and vP in Jordanian Arabic (JA), a finding which is in line with Belletti’s (2004, 2005) model of the low IP area in natural languages. A two million-word corpus of naturally occurring data from JA, supported by grammaticality judgements from 50 JA speakers, reveals that the subject in VSO clauses of JA is mostly either a definite DP or a modified, indefinite DP, implying that a certain informational value (i.e., a topic or a focus) is assigned to the post-verbal subject in such clauses. Another piece of evidence, among many others, that substantiates this line of analysis comes from the distributional properties of the subject in VSO clauses with respect to the past tense copula ka:n ‘was’ and high vP adverbials. The subject appears to the right of the former but to the left of the latter. We take this as a good indication that the subject in VSO clauses moves to a structural position higher than vP adverbials, yet lower than T0. In order to account for the reason why the subject does not raise to Spec,TP in VSO clauses in JA, we adopt the Criterial Freezing approach to movement and chain formation (Rizzi 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014; Rizzi and Shlonsky 2007). Criterial positions, whose heads are endowed with a specific informational feature such as [TOP] or [FOC], are traps. The subject landing in Spec, Topic Phrase or Spec, Focus Phrase (of the low IP area) gets frozen in place, obtaining, as a result, the VSO word order on the surface.

Free Merge or Maximality: On Criterial Freezing

This paper aims to examine the free Merge-based labeling analysis by Epstein, Kitahara and Seely (EKS, 2014, 2015) and Rizzi s (2015, 2016, 2017)...

Feature-relativized Criterial Freezing

This paper investigates the motivation for criterial freezing: the ban on movement from a criterial position. Rizzi (2006) argues that criterial...

On the Necessity of Overt and Covert Scrambling of Whs-in-situ

This paper is an attempt to seek an answer to the long-standing query of why a wh-in-situ moves in wh-in-situ languages. I propose, primarily based on Korean, that a wh-in-situ moves overtly or covertly for its own interpretational need, utilizing the typical scrambling strategy available in wh-in-situ languages, which is in principle independent of the formal need of interrogative C. More specifically, it is argued, assuming that the wh-operator in Korean is a wh-C rather than a wh-phrase, that overt wh-scrambling is triggered by a wh-phrase’s need to receive emphatic focus interpretation via labeling at the left periphery of T/v, whereas covert wh-scrambling is triggered by a wh-phrase’s need to attain proper focus alternative computation which should be possible in situ otherwise. Evidence for the current claim will come from the interaction of different types of wh-constructions with focus criterial freezing effects, focus intervention effects, and focus degravitation effects.

A Criterial Freezing approach to subject extraction in Jordanian Arabic

AbstractUsing the Criterial Freezing approach to movement and chain formation (Rizzi 2005, 2006, 2014; Rizzi and Shlonsky 2006, 2007), this study explores the strategies Jordanian Arabic makes available for subject extraction. I argue that subject extraction in this variety of Arabic is constrained by the postulatedD-linking condition of the Subject Criterion– i.e., [spec,SubjP] is filled by an element with the same D(iscourse)-linking status as that of the subject wh-word (D-linked vs. non-D-linked). In case of questions with a D-linked wh-word, [spec,SubjP] can be filled by the D-linked particleillior a deictic (time-point/place-point) adjunct. Unlike time-point adjuncts, the use of place-point adjuncts to fill [spec,SubjP] is subject to the effects of the Phase Impenetrability Condition (Chomsky 2001), given their low base positions. In contrast, in case of questions with a non-D-linked wh-word, I assume that [spec,SubjP] is filled by an expletivepro.

Dynamic antisymmetry for labeling

The main question raised in this article is why movement of a phrase makes its copy left behind invisible for labeling. Adopting the assumption that movement consists of Copy and Merge, I propose that copying a phrase makes the original inactive in syntactic computation. I argue that this makes it possible (i) to derive the effects of the Phase-Impenetrability Condition on the assumption that Transfer involves Copy, (ii) to provide an account of that-trace effects in English, and (iii) to account for Rizzi's (2006) criterial freezing, as manifested in overt wh-movement in English. I further argue that the proposed system of labeling can be made compatible with the Agree-less approach, recently advocated by Hornstein (2009), with the assumption that feature-checking is conducted in labeling in terms of agreeing features. This brings us a nice consequence of properly dealing with the optionality of raising to object in the English ECM construction.

Is Criterial Freezing a Syntactic Illusion?

Epstein et al. (2014b) suggest, based on the labeling analysis of Chomsky (2013), that there is no NS-specific halting constraint barring syntactic wh-movement from a criterial position, contra Rizzi (2014) and Epstein (1992); that wh-movement is allowed freely in narrow syntax but the ensuing ill-formedness is the result of violating a language-specific morpho-phonological, CI requirements. In this paper, I will argue that NS-specific criterial freezing is real, not a syntactic illusion as claimed in Epstein et al. (2014b), directly affecting both CI and SM interfaces; and show how a wh-in-situ language like Korean can serve as evidence for this claim. I will also show how the system that keeps both the criterial freezing constraint and Chomsky’s (2013) notion of labeling can treat scrambling, which would otherwise be problematic under Chomsky’s (2013) labeling system.