Minimal Link Condition Research Articles

The Structure of the Determiner Phrase in Moroccan Arabic: A Minimalist Approach

This study analyzes the structure of the determiner phrase (DP) in Moroccan Arabic (MA) within the framework of the Minimalist Program (MP). The study focuses on the determiners, adjectives, and possessives within the DP. The findings show that the determination of definiteness or indefiniteness of the noun is crucial and affects the structure of the DP. In this respect, the head of the DP possesses a definiteness feature; thus, noun movement to the determiner position is triggered by both the definiteness feature and the Minimal Link Condition (MLC). Adjective phrases in the DP are analyzed through the functional category AgrP to satisfy the features of the nouns and adjectives locally. Specifically, the uninterpreted features of case, gender, and number are carried in the head of AgrP, and movement is triggered by the need to satisfy the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and to allow for feature checking while respecting the MLC principle. The paper argues that Carnie's (2013) arguments about the possessive DP are inadequate to account for MA and proposes the insertion of a functional projection "PossP" that dominates the whole DP, enabling the genitive case to be assigned to the possessor DP. The study shows that the MP approach is adequate in analyzing the DP structure in MA, the operations MOVE and MERGE, and the EPP and MLC principles play essential roles in forming DP structures. The paper also notes that when elements move, they leave behind a copy of the model element to preserve the original semantic interpretation.

Subject Raising in Chinese Modal Auxiliary Verb Constructions: A-movement or A′-movement?

Abstract Subject raising in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions can be either A-movement or A′-movement. Modal auxiliary verbs such as hui and yao can take a nonfinite TP complement which cannot value the abstract case of the embedded subject. Hence the embedded subject must get its case valued by the matrix T and is raised to the Spec-TP of the matrix clause. This kind of raising is A-movement and is obligatory. Modal auxiliary verbs such as keneng and yinggai take a finite CP complement that can be assigned tense value by the broader context. The embedded subject can get its case valued and stay in situ. It can also be raised to the sentence-initial position by topicalization. This kind of raising is A′-movement. The A-movement and A′-movement contrast accounts for the minimal link condition in object raising, weak and strong quantificational NPs, topic stacking, and resumptive pronouns in Chinese modal auxiliary verb constructions.

경험자 논항(experiencer argument) 인상 구문과 최소 연결 조건(MLC)

This paper aims to explore the properties of raising constructions with an experiencer argument and to provide appropriate analysis for them. In this paper, we have proposed a novel analysis of Spanish raising constructions with an experiencer argument. Specifically, based on the analyses of experiencer pro proposed by Torrego(2002), we have proposed that the Spanish raising verb [v*-parecer] licences a null experiencer argument pro in its Specifier position, and that when the subject argument moves to the outer-Spec of v*P, it crosses the pro of Spec-v*P, resulting in a violation of the Minimal Link Condition(MLC). On the other hand, in order to explain the so-called ''experiencer paradox'', which appears in the English raising construction, we have argued that a multidominant structure can be applied to this construction(cf. Citko 2005, 2011; Wilder 1999, 2008; Gracanin-Yuksek 2007, 2012; Johnson 2009; de Vries 2009, 2012; You 2016, etc.).

Resolving unexpected case concord in German A–N–N compounds

German A(djective)–N(oun)–N(oun) compounds exhibit unexpected internal inflection. The main purpose of this paper is to account for the interesting fact that the adjective in German A–N–N compounds shows several options to inflect for case. It can either agree with the first noun, with the second noun, or with neither of them. A production-task experiment confirms the existence of all three patterns. This is an important result since from a theoretical perspective, agreement of the adjective with the second noun is unexpected because it seems to violate standard locality conditons. Our claim is that the semantic relation in A–N–N compounds is always represented correctly. As a consequence, the different observed inflection strategies are not due to different structures (contra Lawrenz in Deutsch als Fremdsprache 32(1):39–42, 1995). We rather argue that the observed diversity is a consequence of the order of syntactic operations that apply: In German A–N–N compounds, adjectival inflection depends on (i) the order of the operations Agree and Insertion and on (ii) the interaction of these operations with the Strict Cycle Condition and the Minimal Link Condition.

External Arguments and Dative Cliticization: Evidence of Selective Spell‐out of Functional Heads

AbstractThe paper discusses dative cliticization in Modern Greek in passives and unaccusatives. Based on crosslinguistic evidence, I show that dative cliticization is not implicated in movement operations that violate the Minimal Link Condition (MLC). Instead, the observed cliticization patterns exhaustively reduce to the effects of a generalized form of a Doubly Filled Comp Filter. In particular, I show applicative morphemes can be selectively overt also in Indo‐European languages like Greek and that the selective spell‐out of these morphemes positively correlates with the absence of external arguments (Spec,vP). The discussion posits an incremental spell‐out pattern for complex terminals and highlights the reality of head movement as a syntactic operation. The paper also revisits the claim that clitics constitute a heterogeneous class of items and that their morphosyntactic properties might depend on the transitivity/voice of the hosting predicate.

Constraints on displacement: A phase-based approach by Gereon Müller (review)

Reviewed by: Constraints on displacement: A phase-based approach by Gereon Müller Hisatsugu Kitahara Constraints on displacement: A phase-based approach. By Gereon Müller. (Language faculty and beyond 7.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011. Pp. x, 339. ISBN 9789027208248. $158 (Hb). The central issue Gereon Müller addresses in this monograph is the existence of locality constraints on displacement in human language. Beginning with a careful evaluation of locality constraints based on notions such as simplicity, generality, efficiency, nonredundancy, and minimization of search space, M argues that every major locality constraint proposed in recent decades is incompatible with core minimalist assumptions. Such locality constraints include the (generalized) minimal link condition (where structure-building features are enclosed in bullets, as in [•F•]) and the condition of extraction domain (where proper-government is replaced by complement). 1. (Generalized) minimal link condition ((G)MLC): In a structure α[•F•]… [ … β[F] … γ[F] … ] …, movement to [•F•] can only affect the category bearing the [F] feature that is closer to [•F•]. 2. Condition of extraction domain (CED) a. Movement must not cross a barrier. b. An XP is a barrier iff it is not a complement. Thus, a new approach to the effects of the (G)MLC and CED is called for, and this monograph attempts to see to what extent such effects can be derived from more basic principles within a minimalist framework. The monograph begins with a brief introduction (1–8), which outlines key assumptions and new proposals, and it consists of the following seven chapters. Ch. 1, ‘Locality constraints’ (9–66), and Ch. 2, ‘(G)MLC and CED in minimalist syntax’ (67–118), provide an overview of the development of the (G)MLC and the CED, and argue that these two highly general, widely accepted constraints (as well as other existing minimalist accounts for CED effects) are not just empirically problematic but also conceptually questionable, as they are evaluated in terms of notions such as simplicity, generality, efficiency, nonredundancy, and minimization of search space. They are shown to be incompatible with such core minimalist assumptions in a strictly derivational model of syntax. Ch. 3, ‘On deriving (G)MLC effects from the PIC’ (119–64), and Ch. 4, ‘On deriving CED effects from the PIC’ (165–238), argue that the effects of the (G)MLC and CED are derivable from the phase impenetrability condition (introduced in Chomsky 2000) and the edge feature condition (revised from Chomsky 2000, 2001). 3. Phase impenetrability condition (PIC): The domain of a head X of a phase XP is not accessible to operations outside XP; only X and its edge are accessible to such operations. [End Page 655] 4. Edge feature condition (EFC; revised): The head X of phase XP may be assigned an edge feature before the phase XP is otherwise complete, but only if there is no other way to produce a balanced phase. These two principles are supplemented by the following four assumptions: (i) all phrases are phases, (ii) all syntactic operations are driven by features of lexical items, (iii) operation-inducing features are hierarchically ordered on lexical items (where only features on the top are accessible), and (iv) edge features can be assigned only if the phase head is active (meaning that it bears at least one feature to discharge). Given these assumptions, the PIC demands that successivecyclic movement takes place in a radically local manner (via every phrase edge); and under the EFC, the assignment of an edge feature (required for intermediate movement) is limited to an active head (bearing at least one feature to discharge), and such feature assignment takes place only when there is no other way to produce a balanced phase. Following Heck and Müller (2000, 2003), M takes a phase to be balanced if, for every structure-building feature in the numeration, there is a matching feature that is either part of the workspace of the derivation, or at the edge of the current phase. Given this much, the effects of the (G)MLC and CED are shown to follow from the PIC. First consider the effects of the (G)MLC. Suppose that two items are competing for movement, and one is higher (meaning it is merged later) than...

Smuggling the subject across the object in Control

The article presents a formal syntactic study of the derivation of the construction involving Subject Control across an Object (SCaO). In an initial part, a critical review is presented of recent minimalist attempts at accounting for the SCaO phenomenon, both from the Agree-based and Movement-based perspectives. As each of these accounts faces the problem of undoing the effect of Chomsky’s (1995) Minimal Link Condition, the article explores the strategies employed by them. These involve Richards’s (1998) Principle of Minimal Compliance, encapsulation of the nominal object within a silent PP, late merge of the nominal object, and reversing the order of the complements of the promise-type verb in the base. Eventually, a solution based on smuggling is proposed, whereby at a certain stage of the derivation a larger container phrase is moved around the intervener and subsequently a smaller sub-constituent is launched from within it. Among the syntactocentric solutions to the problem at hand, the new smuggling alternative appears to avoid, at a relatively low price, the empirical and conceptual pitfalls which the other accounts have not been able to steer clear of.

The syntax of Subject Control across an object: on the limitations of the silent PP hypothesis

This brief paper constitutes a critical evaluation of the silent PP-hypothesis of Hornstein and Polinsky (2010), a key element in their accounting for the bleeding of the Minimal Link Condition in a movement-based account of Subject Control across an object. It appears that while their evidence for the presence of the silent PP in constructions with the verb promise in English is well motivated, such an assumption cannot be adopted for Polish, a language where the indirect object of subject control verbs and control shift verbs is not found within a PP and can even appear in a structural case (Accusative). Thus from the perspective of comparative studies the inadequacy of the silent PP-hypothesis is a considerable problem for the movement-based approach to control. Yet, as a brief survey of other current solutions to the MLC problem with promise shows, no alternative proposal is free from serious limitations of its own.

Adverb classes and the nature of minimality

In this work, we report a new interaction pattern among adverb classes in the context of movement and examine the implications of this pattern with respect to Rizzi’s (1990, 2001) Relativized Minimality, Chomsky’s (1995) Minimal Link Condition, and Ernst’s (2002) Fact-Event Object Calculus. In Sect. 1, we review the relevant data in the literature. Our new contribution is reported in Sect. 2 using wh-movement and four sample adverb classes. Section 3 shows that the pattern holds for various other types of movement as well (neutral preposing, focalization, and clefting in English; scrambling in Russian). We also discuss the behavior of NPs, PPs, and verbal heads here. Section 4 focuses on the theoretical significance of the new facts. In Appendix A, we provide a more comprehensive demonstration of how various adverb classes obey the pattern established in Sects. 2–3. Appendix B is an actual sample of the verbal context we presented to our informants for soliciting subtle data.

Feature Inheritance and Object Raising in Epistemic Modal Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

We present evidence to argue that the object raising in epistemic modal constructions in Chinese is A-movement. The consequence of this claim is the apparent violation of Minimal Link Condition. Following Chomsky’s (2007 & 2008) feature inheritance hypothesis, we argue that the T of the TP complement of epistemic verbs does not contain any unvalued phi-features due to the absence of the CP-layer, and contains only the inherent EPP structural requirement, which, in itself, does not impose minimality restriction on the search of the goal. The implication of this analysis is three-fold: (i) the checking-based approach to A-movement does not hold in Chinese, (ii) Chinese employs the delayed version of Phase Impenetrability Condition, and (iii) activity condition in Chinese is subject to factor(s) other than Case.

Applicatives

AbstractAn applicative is a syntactic element adding an extra object to a clause. In some cases, the direct and applied objects are generated within a small clause; in others, the applied object is generated outside the main verb phrase. Symmetric applicatives allow either object to move to the subject position of a passive clause; asymmetric applicatives allow only one object to move. Within Minimalist theory, syntactic movement is constrained by the Minimal Link Condition (MLC). In the simplest case, the MLC allows only the highest argument to move to subject position. However, the lower object can do so if the higher object is ineligible for movement, or if the lower one moves over it via a syntactic escape hatch. A surprising interaction of binding and movement provides independent evidence for this analysis. A new phase‐based approach seeks to illuminate the nature of syntactic domains by connecting movement in applicatives with their semantic and phonological properties.

Notes on Phase Extension

Since the early 1960s, one of the major goals of work in generative syntax has been to explain the locality properties of syntactic dependencies. Current accounts in the Minimalist framework derive locality from two basic notions. First, the syntactic relations that give rise to agreement and displacement are subjected to the Minimal Link Condition, which stipulates that such relations can obtain only in the absence of relevant intevening elements.

Possessor Raising in Nuu-chah-nulth

Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is semantically unrestricted and affects only subjects: subject agreement matches the person and number of the possessor (rather than the possessed subject), and the possessive-marking clitic attaches to the head of the clause (rather than to the possessum). Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is analyzed as a syntactic dependency between the possessive clitic in the main clause and the base-generated possessor position within DP. A Possessive Phrase can appear in either the DP or the clausal domain, and the possessive clitic may be generated in either position. When the possessive clitic is generated in the main clause, a possessor may raise out of subject position via feature-driven movement; the Minimal Link Condition prevents such movement from occurring out of object position. Résumé

Linkers and the Internal Structure of vP

In a variety of languages a particle, which we call the linker, appears between the direct object and a secondary object or nominal adpositional phrase. We compare the syntax of this linker particle in Kinande (Niger-Congo) to its syntax in two Khoisan languages, Ju|’hoansi and # Hoan. We propose an account of the properties that linkers in these languages share, including the linkers’ word order properties and Case-theoretic contributions. We then go on to explore the range of variation that the linker construction tolerates, with respect to what phrases can move into the linker’s specifier, and whether or not the linker manifests agreement with its specifier. In so doing, we uncover both the principles and the parameters relevant to these linker constructions. Finally, we point to some evidence that the linker category even exists in Chichewa (and other Bantu languages) in which it is not spelled out overtly. Our analysis provides striking support for the existence of vP-internal functional projections. The data in this paper also lead us to the surprising conclusion that the Minimal Link Condition can be parameterized.

Kinyarwanda locative applicatives and the Minimal Link Condition

The two objects of ditransitive locative applicatives in Kinyarwanda display asymmetrical behaviour with respect to syntactic movement. Whereas the applied object (the goal) of a locative can be extracted in relative clauses, become the subject of a passive and incorporate as an object marker, the theme cannot undergo any of these operations, at least not as long as the applied object remains in object position. However, once the applied object has been passivised, relativised or incorporated, the theme is also free to move. We analyse these observations on the basis of the Minimal Link Condition (MLC) (Chomsky, 1995; 2000), which excludes movement of an element α to a position K if there is another element β of the same type which is closer to K. We show that the theme cannot move in Kinyarwanda locative applicatives because the applied object is closer to the potential landing site. However, in contexts in which the applied object has been moved 'out of the way', the MLC no longer blocks movement of the theme. In our analysis, we discuss a number of key theoretical concepts of the Minimalist Program, such as the Extension Condition, the notion of minimal domain, and derivation by phase.

The Syntax of Ditransitives: Evidence from Clitics (review)

Reviewed by: The syntax of ditransitives: Evidence from clitics by Elena Anagnostopoulou Marcel den Dikken The syntax of ditransitives: Evidence from cliticsBy Elena Anagnostopoulou. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003. Pp. xiv, 379. ISBN 3110170280. $114.40 (Hb). The syntax of ditransitives has long been a densely researched topic—an octopus whose tentacles have touched upon many a major issue in linguistic research, including the representation of argument structure, the syntax of argument-structure alternations, case theory, configurational structure and the binary branching hypothesis, A′-syntax and scope, c-command-based vs. linearity-based approaches to asymmetries, and locality. Elena Anagnostopoulou’s eminently detailed book contributes to this fertile field a study that focuses on the last-mentioned issue: the ways in which ditransitive constructions impinge on locality theory—particularly, the locality of A-movement. And by doing so, it defends a syntax of ditransitives in which double-object and prepositional ditransitives have radically different (and transformationally unrelated) structures, and, along the way, it elucidates the role of case theory in reining in the possibilities of A-movement by showing that case theory plays no major role here at all (thus lending support to Chomsky’s (2000, 2001) ‘demotion’ of case as a factor in triggering and constraining movement). Its results bear obliquely on the many questions surrounding the argument structure of triadic verbs; but by making the locality restrictions on A-movement its focal point, this study sheds much-needed light on major questions that have lingered in footnotes or disclaimers for much too long, issues on which the minimalist approach to syntactic derivation affords us a particularly clear window. A sets herself two major goals in her book: (i) ‘establishing that NP-movement can be used as an analytic tool for probing into the properties of ditransitives’, and (ii) showing that ‘cross-linguistic variation results from the interplay between the morpho-syntactic properties of double object constructions and the syntax of clitics’ (1). This second goal earns the book its subtitle, which, interestingly enough, is not reflected in the blurb text on the back cover. And indeed, evidence from clitics plays a central role only in the last two, relatively short, chapters of the book, with Ch. 4 making a detailed case for the idea that clitics obviate locality effects and Ch. 5 addressing person restrictions. Clitics figure prominently in the context of these person restrictions: in ditransitives with two weak pronominal or clitic objects, the direct object has to be third person. But one of the main contributions of Ch. 5 is precisely its demonstration of the fact that these restrictions by no means cluster specifically around clitics: in Icelandic constructions with a quirky dative subject, the nominative object agreeing with the finite verb has to be third person as well. Overwhelming in empirical detail, drawing directly and heavily on other scholars’ work, and often contenting itself with stipulations instead of explanations, Ch. 5 is a somewhat unfortunate finale. It is nonetheless an important piece of the puzzle because of its impact on the fine-tuning of the definition of locality and the cycle that the book needs. To explain how the indirect object restricts the person specifications of the direct object, A has the indirect object clitic raise to the v-head that checks the clitic’s ϕ-features first, followed by the direct object. On the assumption (supported by Icelandic quirky subject agreement but not derived from anything) that the indirect-object clitic checks person but not number on v, cliticization of the indirect object leaves v with a number feature to check against the direct-object clitic, which it can indeed check if the direct-object [End Page 980] clitic is third person (i.e. nonperson; Benveniste 1966) but not if it is first or second person: a first or second person direct-object clitic, possessing both number and person features, fails to match a v-head that only has a number feature left.1 For this analysis to work, we must make the minimal link condition (MLC) an integral part of the definition of Move/Attract: If we required that the derivation proceed strictly cyclically within phases (Chomsky 2001), the direct-object clitic...

A Smuggling Approach to Raising in English

In this squib, I analyze raising constructions involving an overt experiencer, as in the following example (I indicate lower occurrences or traces with the notation): (1) John seems to Mary [ to be nice]. The issue that (1) poses is the following: given the Minimal Link Condition (MLC) or Relativized Minimality (RM), why doesn't the DP 'Mary' block movement of the DP 'John' from the embedded clause to the matrix Spec,IP? In this squib, I will suggest a solution to this problem based on smuggling. The basic idea is that VP-movement smuggles the embedded subject 'John' past the experiencer 'Mary', thus avoiding a violation of the MLC/RM.

The layered internal structure and the external syntax of PP

This thesis examines the properties of spatial (i.e., locational and directional) Ps within the minimalist framework (Chomsky 1995,1998,1999), which has put an ultimate emphasis on economy in terms of derivation and representation. The principal goals of this thesis are (i) to investigate how the syntax of such nature derives PPs in accordance with the properties of Ps and (ii) to show how the internal PP structure interacts with the external syntax of PP. Chomsky's minimalist framework assumes two syntactic operations, i.e.. Merge and Move, and two different types of outcome of the operations, depending on the properties of lexical items involved in each operation executed. One outcome results from a merger of two items, of which one selects the other. The other results from a merger of two items, neither of which selects the other. I propose that there are three heads involved in deriving a layered PP structure: functional p, lexical P and locative N. This analysis is shown to be empirically supported from languages such as Dutch, English, Hungarian, Japanese and K'ekchi. I also claim that there are also intransitive Ps that adjoin to either or pP. The internal structure of PP interacts with its external syntax. One apparent area of grammar that shows desirable consequences for the layered PP analysis is P-to-V incorporation. For instance, the incorporability versus the unincorporability of Ps in Dutch can be accounted for by the principle (i.e.. Minimal Link Condition) that forbids skipping over an intermediate head, thus supporting the layered structure of PP. Another area offering support is locative inversion: the presence versus the absence of locative N head in PP can account for a contrast observed in locative inversion facts. Provided that an EPP-feature of T is category-specific, a contrast between PPs that can undergo movement to [Spec, T] and those that cannot stems from their respective internal structures.

On the minimality of Generalized Pied-Piping

Under the view of syntactic movement as driven by the need to attract and check formal features (Chomsky, 1995), what appears to be “movement” reduces to Generalized Pied-Piping (GPP), an operation that carries along the features of the category that contains the attracted feature. This study addresses the question of whether GPP is constrained by minimality just as the core feature-checking operation Attract is constrained by the Minimal Link Condition. Phenomena where A-movement and A′-movement interact are shown to suggest that GPP is immune to such a constraint. Thus, the asymmetry with respect to feature-minimality in movement relations in general (i.e., a certain feature cannot cross over another feature of the same type while others can) is captured by the operational asymmetry between Attract and GPP, which is naturally understood if we think of C HL as a derivational system.

A minimalist analysis of syntactic islands

An account of island effects within the Minimalist Program presents a challenge, since assuming the Minimal Link Condition (MLC) as the only locality constraint on movement, as is done in the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995: Chapter 4 and subsquent work), fails to account for fundamental properties of movement. Firstly, it does not offer an explanation for asymmetries in wh-extraction from wh-islands which were traditionally explained by the ECP and the locality concept of Subjacency, the latter being parameterized in the way it applies in the languages of the world. Additionally, given the MLC, an explanation for the other types of island phenomena, the so-called CED effects (Condition on Extraction Domains) (Huang 1982), is lost. In this article, I will argue that an account of island effects can be given that is compatible with the MLC. It will be shown that cross-linguistic variation with respect to wh-island phenomena can be explained if we assume that C 0 may project multiple specifiers, and that the cross-linguistic variation with respect to CED-island effects is a consequence of the structure-building operation Merge in combination with θ-theoretic restrictions.