"An investigation of ""John is Easy to Please"""

In this thesis, I defend Noam Chomsky's transformational account of "John is easy to please". Then, in the light of an analysis of "John is an easy man to please", based on the infinitival relative, I propose a speculative historical hypothesis concerning the origins of "John is easy to please". In addition, I attempt to explain the lexical government of object-shift and to account for the synchronic occurrence of such sentences as "John is too smart to fool" and "John is stupid enough to fool" alongside of the more conventional passivized variants "John is too smart to be fooled" and "John is stupid enough to be fooled". In, general, the emphasis is placed on attempting to account for the occurrence of complex syntax, in particular, the permuted structure found in "John is easy to please".

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Halpern, Richard Neil

• Language, Linguistics

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8026510

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/66712