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ERIC Number: ED513094
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 266
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: ISBN-978-1-1092-7306-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Intervention and Rescue: Arguments for Representational Constraints on Syntactic Dependencies
Shields, Rebecca
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
This thesis presents arguments for a representational analysis of certain locality constraints on movement. I look at two types of locality effects: Negative Intervention effects in English (Beck 1996, 2006, Pesetsky 2000), and Relativized Minimality effects with adverb scrambling in Russian, Japanese, and Korean (Rizzi 1990, 2001, Li, Lin & Shields in progress). The focus is on certain configurations where the current theory predicts a violation, but the sentences are unexpectedly grammatical. New data introduced include the fact that the addition of a modal repairs English Negative Intervention effects, and that extremely short adverb scrambling across an intervener is possible, while longer scrambling is ruled out. I argue that the existence of such "rescue" configurations is evidence for a representational, rather than derivational, model of these constraints. I show that the facts are difficult to handle derivationally, and propose a modification to the current representational analysis which makes the correct predictions. The revised theory of Minimality is also extended to a new analysis of Holmberg's Generalization, which is shown to be preferable to previous approaches on both empirical and theoretical grounds. I also argue for a refined notion of what it means for something to be an "intervener" for a particular type of movement. The evidence provided in this thesis is problematic for attempts to reduce constraints on syntactic dependencies entirely to properties of the derivation (Chomsky 1995, Epstein et al. 1998, Epstein & Seely 2002), and supports recent work suggesting that the grammar must contain at least some representational constraints (Lasnik 2001, Aoun & Li 2003, Boeckx & Lasnik 2006). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A