Subject: _ rightward movement _ review - - ii

[ editor 's note : the following is the second part of a review of beerman et al . _ righward movement _ . the first part is to be found in the previous issue of linguist . ] most of frank drijkoningen 's paper ` morphological strength : np positions in french ' ( pp . 81-114 ) is devoted to a clever account of the relative ordering of subjects and verbs , and parts thereof , in french , with especially focus on inversion constructions , demonstrating that the data can be described in a manner consistent with kayne 's antisymmetry theory - - provided one adopts a certain amount of occam - stretching multiplication of functional heads with resultant multiple spec - positions as ` homes ' for subjects . drijkoningen argues fairly convincingly for the following hierarchical ordering of functional heads in french : [ c [ t [ agr ( s ) [ agr ( o ) [ agr ( a ) [ vp ] ] ] ] ] ] , identifying participial agreement not with agr ( o ) but with agr ( a ) , the checking-site for predicate - adjective agreement . he also offers a hypothesis with regard to a trigger for french stylistic inversion ( in which the subject np follows the verbal complex ) . his assumption is that ( in both french and english ) spec - head agr features in infl are ` strong ' , while head - features in infl are ` strong ' in french but ` weak ' in english . however , overt saturation of spec - head agr features in cp ( e . g . , by fronting an overt wh-expression ) significantly reduces the strength of spec - head agr features in ip , obviating the need for the subject np to rise to spec - agr ( s ) for checking . the paper is characterized by heavy reliance on ` floating / stranded _ tous _ ' , i . e . , a quantifier separated superficially from the np it modifies . this reviewer found little or no evidence of any awareness of the possibility of q - movement independent of movement of the modified np ; many of the starred strings could actually be derived , assuming a kayne approach , if q were allowed to move on its own . there was no sign of any argument that such movement is impossible ; perhaps it can be ruled out by lack of motivation . this paper is a thick , but rather strong argument for underlying svo and exclusively leftward - movement in french . of course , few linguists would contest that french is svo , and what evidence there may be for rightward - movement in this language has always been a best peripheral ( pun intended ) . given the strong arguments for rm and head-finality in other languages presented by bayer and buring & hartmann , this paper seems like a lot of sound and fury . erik hoekstra 's paper , ` analysing linear asymmetries in the verb clusters of dutch and frisian and their dialects ' ( pp . 153-170 ) , presents an analysis in terms of kayne 's lca hypothesis of the syntax of the complex verb clusters so especially characteristic of these languages . in the course of his discussion , it gradually becomes clear that , on the basis of the ordering of elements within these clusters , he distinguishes between dutch and frisian as respectively ` head-initial ' and ` head-final ' . it is clear to this reviewer why these labels are appropriate specifically with regard to the internal syntax of verb clusters , but describing dutch as ` head-initial ' is likely to be a surprise to many people who thought they knew otherwise . in discussing the feasibility , or lack thereof , of inserting non - verbal material ( including particles ) between members of a verb cluster , hoekstra not only demonstrates that this follows very reasonably from the lca - account he is proposing but claims ( p . 158 ) that ` the rigidity of head-final clusters [ i . e . , their intolerance of such insertion ] . . . is a mystery for any approach not incorporating asymmetry . ' in fact , it makes perfect sense if we assume an underlying head-final order and the derivation of alternative orders by the rm of verbal projections . this reviewer is not necessarily suggesting that this is a * better * approach than hoekstra 's lca - account , but it is certainly quite feasible , contrary to his apparent belief . in the last section , hoekstra spends a fair amount of time on a very interesting discussion of the infinitivum - pro - participio ( ipp ) effect , whereby in some germanic languages ( e . g . , dutch ) a ( perfective ) participle taking an infinitive verb as its complement must itself surface in the form of an infinitive . the primary questions at issue for hoekstra are : what is the formal grammatical nature of the ipp effect ? and why is it characteristic only of some ( germanic ) languages and not of others ? hoekstra argues that the ipp effect only occurs in languages in which the perfective participle is marked by a prefix , e . g . the germanic prefix ` ge - ' or reflexes thereof , and that this prefix occupies the spec position of the verb to which it is morphologically attached . since under these circumstances that spec position is already occupied , it is impossible for the infinitive complement to move into that position as it must , the derivation crashes ; the loophole exploited by dutch and other ipp languages ( this is , in fact , the traditional analysis in germanic scholarship ) is the substitution of an ` alternative ' form of the participle which is morphophonologically identical to the infinitive ( and therefore , in hoekstra 's view , has no obstructionist prefix ) . the fact that frisian does not exhibit ipp effects , according to this analysis , is directly related to the fact that in frisian the perfective participle is marked only by a suffix . this reviewer admits to not being familiar with the scholarly literature on the subject of ipp , but notes some curiosity as to how hoekstra 's claim ( p . 159 ) that ` the ipp effect is systematically absent in head - final germanic dialects ' can be squared with the fact that german , which is clearly head-final in the sense that hoekstra uses the term , typically marks perfective participles with a prefix and , indeed , exhibits ipp . the last few pages of the paper are devoted to a very nice little discussion of the recent evolution of ipp in a couple of frisian dialects , which hoekstra argues is due in both cases to remarkably heavy contact with dutch . in this reviewer 's opinion , this section represents a very desirable conjunction of scholarship and concerns in sociolinguistics and linguistic evolution on the one hand and formal grammatical theory on the other . in his paper ` movement in japanese relative clauses ' ( pp . 171-185 ) , satoshi stanley koike argues that all relative clauses in japanese , including the ` externally-headed ' ones whose ` heads ' are ( apparently ) ` extracted ' to their right , can be accounted for in terms of a kayne lca - type analysis allowing only spec - head - comp base structures and leftward movement . noting certain problems resulting from adopting kayne 's analysis , koike makes clear that they are almost certainly obviated by his ( * very interesting * ) proposal of a * discourse-based * motivation for the leftward movement his adoption of kayne 's lca approach forces him to assume . koike 's hypothesis that the movement of ip in these japanese cases is essentially stylistic movement , i . e . , motivated by pragmatic or discourse considerations rather than purely syntactic ones , at least implies that it is pf - movement which would ( 1 ) account for the fact that , in order for his analysis to make the right predictions , * have * to follow the movement of the semantic ` head ' np - - the latter being a proper ` syntactic ' movement - ( 2 ) be invisible as far as binding theory is concerned , binding theory being relevant primarily at lf and totally irrelevant at pf , and ( 3 ) not be subject to relativized minimality either . in their paper ` rightward wh - movement in american sign language ' ( pp . 247-278 ) , carol neidle , judy kegl , benjamin bahan , debra aarons , & dawn maclaughlin argue that americal sign language ( asl ) exhibits a head-final cp with a right-marginal spec as landing-site for wh - movement . they note ( p . 267 ) that this proposal ` is partially consistent with kayne 's claims about universal ordering ' , in that it places spec and complement on opposite sides of the head ; however , their proposal differs from kayne 's universal antisymmetry approach in positing a head-final structure for cp while assuming head-initial structures for all its complement-daughters . neidle et al . base much of their anti - lca argument on the fact that certain syntactic features ( including polarity , + / - wh , etc . ) are in asl expressed by ` non-manual markers ' ( e . g . , facial expressions ) which frequently spread over certain portions of the clauses they are associated with , and the very plausible notion that those portions can be defined as the c-command domains of the functional heads associated with these features . thus , the possibility , or lack thereof , of such spreading in asl is taken as symptomatic of the presence or absence of c-command relations ( p . 250 ) . it is on the basis of such spreading that they argue that the landing-site for wh - movement in asl , which is clearly to the right of the clause , nevertheless c-commands the latter , and they demonstrate that these c-command facts are incompatible with a kayne - type analysis . they briefly entertain analyses more consistent with kayne 's lca - hypothesis , involving the raising of c and ip into higher positions ( which , they note , must nevertheless be below positions , e . g . the landing-site of topicalization , known to be above cp in asl ) , but point out that there is ( 1 ) no evidence as to the functional nature of such positions , ( 2 ) no independent motivation for their existence , and ( 3 ) no evident motivation for the movement they are discussing . in their paper ` language types and generative grammar : a review of some consequences of the univeral vo hypothesis ' ( pp . 331-357 ) , caterina donati & alessandra tomaselli address the repercussions of kayne 's antisymmetry hypothesis for constituent-order typological studies . they demonstrate very neatly and elegantly the manifold empirical problems kayne 's approach has with languages representing a variety of types , including ( 1 ) ov languages with v2 ( german , dutch ) , ( 2 ) svo languages without pro-drop ( english , french ) , ( 3 ) svo languages with pro-drop ( italian ) , and ( 4 ) vso languages ( irish ) . repeatedly , they demonstrate that more traditional analyses provide more accurate results than analyses assuming kayne 's antisymmetry hypothesis . it should be noted that donati & tomaselli are throughout addressing specifically the relative ordering of verbs and nominals in ordinary , garden-variety clauses ; the details of extraposed structures such as those discussed by bayer , buring & hartmann , and haider are not addressed in this paper . while as already noted half the papers in this collection , understandably , discuss ` extraposition ' , it is unfortunate that there are no papers focussing ( pun intended ) on adverbal focus-movement , a serious alternative candidate for a rm analysis ( for which cf . schaufele 1990 , 1998 ) . neidle et al . 's paper relates to focus in an indirect way , in that it is commonly assumed that wh-elements are a priori focussed and that therefore their s - structure location , especially if there is anything remarkable about it , should be considered as at least a possible landing-site for focus-movement . as a sort of appendix , koike offers a short discussion of rightward focus-movement in turkish , in which he suggests that the same kind of discourse-analysis motivation he proposes for the movement leftward of ` backgrounded ' relative clauses ( away from their semantic ` heads ' ) in japanese can also motivate the movement leftward of * non-focussed * arguments in turkish , leaving the focussed subject stranded in immediately pre-verbal position ( at least in terms of superficial order ) . this reviewer notes , however , that koike makes reference to a single turkish example , a very simple clause involving only three constituents , an object np , a subject np , and a verb , and doubts very much that such an account as he proposes would be able to make much sense out of the much more complex examples of subject-focussing discussed in schaufele 1990 , 1998 . i have complaints about muller 's and hoekstra 's papers at an expository level , in that both assumed on the part of the reader a high degree of familiarity with the languages being discussed . muller provides no english translations for any of his german example sentences , or for that matter of the one hindi example sentence . while this reviewer has little trouble reading and interpreting example sentences in these languages , such facility cannot be expected of most readers of this collection . likewise , hoekstra offered no translations of any of his example sentences , and in many cases this reviewer , who is not unfamiliar with a wide variety of germanic languages , was quite unable to make any sense out of them . furthermore , it is frequently not made clear which language the example in question is meant to represent ; since the paper as a whole depends crucially on distinctions between dutch and frisian , this is a source of serious obscurity . and only on p . 158 , the 6th page of a fairly short paper , does hoekstra finally tell us that the gloss ` mp ' stands for ` modal particle ' , after having used this abbreviation freely in several earlier examples . this abbreviation may be familiar to specialists in netherlandic , but it is n't to a lot of other interested readers . in koike 's paper the inclusion of japanese words in the midst of the english - language text without any typographical highlighting by either quotes or italics , especially in a book with many typographical errors , proved a little unsettling ; this was also a problem in muller 's paper , where it was particularly confusing in the one section that discussed extraposition in english . the book as a whole is plagued with typographical errors . there are two examples ( 59 ) in drijkoningen 's paper . haider 's ( 58a ) is starred , but is in fact an ok string , and it 's obvious from context that haider regards it as ok . in buring & hartmann 's paper , there are exs . ( 21a ) and ( 22a ) , but no ( 21b ) or ( 22b ) ; diagram ( 24 ) is nowhere referred to in the text ( though it 's pretty obvious what it refers to ) . [ bayer in press ] is referred to several times in bayer 's paper , but it does n't appear anywhere in the references ; perhaps it 's represented by bayer 1996 ? the statement of wiltschko 's locality constraint is misprinted on p . 360 in such a way as to be nonsensical . in koike 's paper the alignment of the glosses in ( 20a ) was impossible to make any sense out of , and i had to study ( 10 ) a while before i realized that , although it said literally ` [ dp ip d [ cp np / qp [ c [ ip . . . ' , those biliterals ` dp ' , ` cp ' , and ` ip ' were in some instances meant to be labels on the immediately preceding brackets , not left-daughters of the constituents enclosed within said brackets . mahajan 's paper is particularly plagued with typographical errors ; to mention merely the most egregious example i found , in ( 54 ) the entire direct object np is missing from the hindi string , rendering this example 's relevance to the discussion is completely opaque . as already noted here and there , many of the substantive flaws in this collection are due primarily or entirely to lack of space in which to present relevant arguments . fulfilling the preface 's promise of open-mindedness , the book brings together papers from several different viewpoints , both supporting and undermining kayne 's antisymmetry hypothesis . while many of the contributors obviously hold rather strongly to whatever side of this controversy they espouse , many of them are to be commended for the skill and seriousness they nevertheless give to the necessary task of considering possible alternative analyses that would support the other side . while many of the papers focus on languages , and constructions within those languages , that have already been much discussed in the generative literature , there are some admirable exceptions ; i would especially mention the papers by bayer , hoekstra , and neidle et al . in this regard , also the typological interest behind the paper by donati & tomaselli although they restrict themselves primarily to western european languages . anyone concerned about understanding the debates arising out of kayne 's antisymmetry hypothesis and the grounds both for taking it seriously and for rejecting it cannot afford to ignore this collection . references . bayer , josef . ( 1996 ) directionality and logical form : on the scope of focusing particles and wh - in - situ . dordrecht : kluwer . gould , stephen j . ( 1993 ) ` an earful of jaw ' , eight little piggies , pp . 95-108 . new york : norton . heim , i . ( 1980 ) the semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases . university of massachusetts ph . d . dissertation . hock , hans henrich . ( 1986 ) principles of historical linguistics . berlin : mouton de gruyter . kayne , richard . ( 1994 ) the antisymmetry of syntax . cambridge , ma : mit press . rochemont , michael s . & peter w . culicover . ( 1990 ) english focus constructions and the theory of grammar . cambridge : cambridge university press . schaufele , steven . ( 1990 ) ` a " focus " position for subjects within the vedic vp ' south asian languages roundtable xii , university of california at berkeley , 10 june 1990 . _ _ _ _ _ _ . ( 1998 ) ` rightward ho ! the typology of structural focus and complement - head order ; a critical discussion of antisymmetry , rightward movement , and the syntax / pragmatics interface ' glow - hyderabad , 22 jan . 1998 . steven schaufele 's research interests during the past dozen years have included , most significantly , the typology of constituent-order freedom and the repercussions thereof for formal syntactic theory , as well as the critical comparison of various approaches to syntactic theory . he is currently teaching linguistics in the english department of soochow university in taipei , taiwan . - steven schaufele , ph . d . , asst . prof . of linguistics , english department soochow university , waishuanghsi campus , taipei 11102 , taiwan , roc ( 886 ) ( 02 ) 2881-9471 ext . 6504 fcosw5 @ mbm1 . scu . edu . tw http : / / www . prairienet . org / ~ fcosws / homepage . html
