2024-03-29T07:39:25Z
https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/oai
oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00027939
2023-01-16T04:29:28Z
326:521:2321:2388
Comp-trace Effects Revisited
Wakayama, Masayuki
open access
The purpose of this paper is to explain Comp-trace effects without the notion of "government". Cross-linguistic surveys reveal that languages without Comp-trace effects allow pronominal subjects to be phonologically null. This suggests that the nature of C^0 is irrelevant to Comp-trace effects as it has been assumed, but that the strength of Agr has an effect on the phenomenon. I will propose that the licensing condition of the subject trace in Comp-trace constructions is identical with that of null subjects, as in (1): (1) The Licensing Condition of Empty Subjects, a. [AgrSP EC [AgrS' [AgrS [V+Agr+T]]]] b. Agr=[+strong] and T=[+finite] (2) illustrates that the subject cannot be extracted out of embedded clauses with a complementizer in English. (2) a. *Whoi do you think that ti saw John? b. ...[CP tithat [AgrSP t2 [VP saw John]]] In (2b), t2 in [Spec, AgrSP] is not in a Spec-Head relation with a proper head. The reason for this is that the licensing head [V+Agr+T] cannot be formed in English, because V cannot move to inflectional projections overtly. Obviously, English does not permit null subjects. (3) a. He dances well, b. *φdances well Pro is excluded by the condition (1), too. This is attributed to the lack of overt V-to-I movement here again. V-raising is a precondition of forming the licenser [V+Agr+T]. This approach is more attractive than traditional approaches, in that it simplifies the licensing condition of empty categories, and that the values of two different parameters can be settled by only one trigger : the strength of [Agr]. If this approach is tenable, it will be a great contribution to simplifying UG, too. As long as a language specifies the value of Agr as [+strong], it will allow both null-subjects and Comp-trace effects at the same time.
名古屋大学英文学会
The society of english literature and linguistics Nagoya University
1997-10-31
eng
departmental bulletin paper
VoR
http://hdl.handle.net/2237/00030138
https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/27939
0914-2266
IVY
30
147
167
https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/27939/files/ivy_30_147.pdf
application/pdf
834.7 kB
2019-05-09