Generalized inversion and theory of agree

In this thesis I examine some of the fundamental questions surrounding inversion structures. I first provide an analysis of Locative Inversion. I show that the mixed A- and A- syntactic behavior of the fronted PP in English could be derived once we understand how the featural composition of locative phrases influences on the Probe-Goal relation between C and the postverbal DP. In particular, I argue that there is a correlation between syntactic categories of locative phrases and typological differences in the syntactic patterns in Locative Inversion: in Mandarin Chinese, Chichewa, Kinande and Gungbe, locatives are (or can be) represented by nominal categories (i.e. equipped with complete cp-features) and these locatives exhibit pure A-properties in Locative Inversion; in English and Sesotho, however, they are characteristically represented by non-nominal categories and the locative phrases are thus forced to undergo two-step movement from an Aposition to an A-position as avoidance of intervention effects in the Agree system.I also discuss a variety of (generalized) inversion constructions, including English Quotative Inversion, Sentential Subject and French Stylistic Inversion. In these constructions I show that since a cp-deficient constituent moves to [Spec, TP], additional operations (such as topicalization) have to take place so as to destroy the potentially offending structure created by the fronted defective elements.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Hsiao-hung Iris

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Noam Chomsky, Danny Fox, David Petesky and Norvin Richards.

• Linguistics and Philosophy.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45894

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45894