The minimalist syntax of defective domains : gerunds and infinitives / Acrisio Pires.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pires, Acrisio.

Series:

Linguistik aktuell ; Bd. 98.

Linguistik aktuell, 0166-0829 ; v. 98

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Gerund.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Infinitive.

Minimalist theory (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (205 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book unifies the analysis of certain non-finite domains, focusing on subject licensing, agreement, and Case and control. It proposes a minimalist analysis of English gerunds which allows only a null subject PRO (TP-defective gerunds), a lexical subject (gerunds as complements of perception verbs), or both types of subjects (clausal gerunds). It then analyzes Portuguese infinitives, showing that the morphosyntactic properties of non-inflected and inflected infinitives correlate with distinct treatments of obligatory and non-obligatory control. It explores these and other phenomena to show that tense and event binding do not correlate with the contrast between control and raising/exceptional case marking (ECM), against null Case theories of control. A Probe-Goal approach to Case and agreement is adopted in combination with a movement analysis of control. The book then investigates diachronic morphosyntactic phenomena involving infinitives, verb movement and cliticization in Portuguese, exploring a cue-based theory of syntactic change grounded in language acquisition.

Contents:

The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

dedication page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

INTRODUCTION

1 Gerunds: Phonologically null features

2 Features and control

3 Inflected and non-inflected infinitives: Case and control

1. THE MINIMALIST SYNTAX OF CLAUSAL GERUNDS

1 Introduction

2 The clause structure of Clausal Gerunds

3 Null subjects in Clausal Gerunds

3.1 Problems for a Null Case/Tense approach to control in gerunds

3.2 Obligatory control in Clausal Gerunds

3.3 Non-Obligatory control in Clausal Gerunds

4 The syntax of Clausal Gerunds

4.1 The derivation of Clausal Gerunds

5 Overt Case marking and default Case?

6 Binding and Clausal Gerunds

7 Case and agreement in non-finite domains

8 Conclusion

2. CLAUSAL VERSUS TP-DEFECTIVE GERUNDS:

1 A Class of Gerunds without a TP

1.1 No independence in terms of tense and aspect specification

1.2 No projection of a lexical subject

2 Restructuring Gerunds?

3 Control and Null Case

3.1 Problems for a Tense/event binding approach to Null Case

4 Deriving control and lack of overt subjects in TP-defective gerunds

5 Properties of gerunds as complements of perception verbs

6 TP-defective Gerunds vs. gerunds as complements of perception verbs

7 Conclusion

3. AGREEMENT, CASE, CONTROL AND MOVEMENT IN INFINITIVES

2 Control in dialects with inflected infinitives

2.1 Need for a local c-commanding antecedent

2.2 Sloppy reading under ellipsis

2.3 Impossibility of split antecedents

3 Null subjects of uninflected infinitives as the result of DP-movement

3.1 Subject control

3.2 Object control

3.3 Adjunct control

4 Non-overt subjects of inflected infinitives

5 Evidence from binding.

6 A Note on Arbitrary PRO

7 Believe-type verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

7.1 Background: Propositional infinitives in English and French

7.2 Contrast: Propositional infinitives in Brazilian Portuguese

8 Other analyses of control

8.1 Tense, agreement and control

8.2 Overt subjects of infinitives in other Romance languages

9 Conclusion

4. SYNTACTIC CHANGE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFLECTED AND NON-INFLECTED INFINITIVES

2 Inflected versus non-inflected infinitives

3 Theories about the origin of inflected infinitives in Portuguese

4 A learnability explanation for the origin of inflected infinitives

5 Explaining the effects of the loss of inflected infinitives

5.1 Licensing of null subjects in dialects with inflected infinitives

5.2 Loss of verbal agreement in Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese

5.3 Null subjects of infinitives in Colloquial Brazilian Portuguese

5.4 Licensing of overt subjects in non-inflected infinitives

6 Other changes in Brazilian Portuguese

6.1 Background: A point-of-view projection above TP

6.2 Loss of inversion in BP

6.3 Changes in verb and clitic placement

6.4 Third person accusative clitics

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

INDEX

The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612155277

9781282155275

128215527X

9789027293152

9027293155

OCLC:

427506759