UMWPiL Volume 15 (2007)
Welcome to the homepage of the fifteenth volume of the University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics. This is the second internet-based publication of UMWPiL. By publishing online and offering free access, it presents our authors with a greater audience and provides our readers with easier access. Each of the seven papers included in this volume can be found below, with an abstract provided. The papers are all downloadable in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free from Adobe.com.
The editors would like to thank the numerous authors and reviewers who helped to make this volume possible.
Citations: Please cite the papers as they are listed at bottom of the first page of each submission.
Cedric Boeckx, Norbert Hornstein and Jairo Nunes "Overt Copies in Reflexive and Control Structures: A Movement Analysis" (pp. 1-46)
Pritha Chandra "Long-Distance Agreement in Tsez: A Reappraisal" (pp. 47-72)
Stanley Dubinsky and Shoko Hamano "A Window into the Syntax of Control: Event Opacity in Japanese and English" (pp. 73-97)
Youngmi Jeong "Multiple Wh-Fronting in Basque" (pp. 98-142)
Howard Lasnik "On Ellipsis: The PF Approach to Missing Constituents" (pp. 143-153)
Paul Pietroski "Induction and Comparison" (pp. 154-186)
Heather Lee Taylor "Movement from IF-Clause Adjuncts" (pp. 187-200)
Abstract: This paper discusses reflexive and control constructions in languages like San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec (Lee, 2003) and Hmong (Mortensen, 2003), where instead of a reflexive in the former and a null category in the latter, one may find a copy of the antecedent. The paper argues that these constructions provide compelling evidence for a movement analysis of control (Boeckx and Hornstein, 2003, 2004; Hornstein, 2001, 2003) and reflexivization (Hornstein, 2001), as well as the proposal that the phonetic realization of copies generated by movement is regulated by linearization and morphological requirements (Nunes, 1999, 2004).
Abstract: This paper is a critique of Agree-based accounts of long-distance agreement in Tsez. It highlights the inconsistencies inherent in such analyses and suggests instead an alternative where agreement is accomplished in 'local' configurations brought forth by the structure-building operation Merge and Move/Remerge. Contra what has been proposed before, the paper suggests that the agreement triggering nominal has an uninterpretable structural Case feature checked as a reflex of phi-feature checking with the matrix verb.
Abstract: This paper explores Control properties of adverbial clauses consisting of an accusative NP and a locative PP headed by ni. The paper presents evidence motivating an Obligatory Control (OC) analysis of this adverbial, showing that syntactic OC in Japanese is blocked in the presence of vP/TP. The observed blocking effects are shown to be caused by event-features associated with the projection of vP/TP. This observation is formalized by amending Hornstein's (1999) proposal for doing away with the Theta-criterion. Our extension of Hornstein 1999 asserts that an NP cannot check Theta-roles from distinct events, and allows for NP movement through an event-denoting vP/TP just in case the NP does not acquire additional Theta-roles in the derivation. The last section examines flaws in Landau's (2000, 2003, 2004) tense-based explanations of exhaustive and partial control, showing that control categories are determined on the basis of event-structure (rather than the tense of the complement).
Abstract:This paper analyzes the existence of superiority with each instance of wh-fronting in Basque multiple questions, and shows how the phenomenon forces us to reconsider our understanding of the mechanisms of multiple wh-fronting in general. I propose that the role of the verb is crucial in determining the specific patterns of multiple wh-fronting found across languages. If correct, my analysis shows that head-to-head dependencies cannot be entirely shifted from narrow syntax into the PF-component, as they are the key factors in the syntactic organization of multiple wh-fronting. My analysis also entails that because it depends on such uninterpretable features as phi-features on finite verbs, superiority is a narrow-syntax requirement, and not an interpretive effect.
Abstract: There are two fundamentally divergent approaches to ellipsis: a) those that assume that an ellipsis site is nothing at all, no internal structure, no empty category; b) those that assume full internal structure at certain levels. Culicover and Jackendoff (2005) reject all approaches of type (a), replying to some of the arguments that have been offered for (a). The present paper (a write-up of a talk at a symposium centering on these issues) reconsiders some of Culicover and Jackendoff's replies, and also offers some further evidence in favor of one of the variants of (a) - the PF deletion approach.
Abstract:Frege proved an important result, concerning the relation of arithmetic to second-order logic, that bears on several issues in linguistics. Frege's Theorem illustrates the logic of relations like PRECEDES(x, y) and TALLER(x, y), while raising doubts about the idea that we understand sentences like 'Carl is taller than Al' in terms of abstracta like heights and numbers. Abstract paraphrase can be useful -- as when we say that Carl's height exceeds Al's -- without reflecting semantic structure. Related points apply to causal relations, and even grammatical relations like DOMINATES(x, y). Perhaps surprisingly, Frege provides the resources needed to recursively characterize labelled expressions without characterizing them as sets. His theorem may also bear on questions about the meaning and acquisition of number words.
Abstract: Contrary to what is standardly reported in the literature, extraction from IF-clauses is allowed in some conditionals, constituting a CED violation. This paper explores the porosity of certain IF-clauses, explaining the distribution of acceptable and unacceptable extractions as the result of two distinct factors: the eventual adjunction site (i.e., base-generated position) of the IF-clause, and the immediate availability of a relevant functional projection. Since an IF-clause is inarguably an adjunct and subject to the CED, extraction out of an IF-clause is only permissible via sideward movement, and is therefore subject to the limitations of such interarboreal movement. These limitations predict the pattern of acceptability observed in English.