Functional Architecture and Wh-Movement

Irish as a Case in Point

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20260331
AutoresMáire B Noonan (Université du Québec à Montréal, autor de correspondencia)
Año1997
Volumen42
Número1-2
Páginas111-139
Fecha de publicación1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-4131 • E-ISSN: 1710-1115
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008413100016844
OpenAlexW2467671483
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas19

This article sketches a novel approach to the phenomenon traditionally referred to as complementizer variation in Irish, and provides an alternative analysis to the standard one proposed by McCloskey (1990). It is argued that the two variants of the particle surfacing in Ā-constructions are not in fact complementizers per se, but the head of a Focus projection (FP), whose specifier provides an escape hatch for wh -phrases. FP interacts with C in two different ways, and depending on which of the options apply, F surfaces in two variants: (i) F incorporates to C, or (ii) FP raises to [Spec, CP]. The particle traditionally analysed as a resumptive strategy complementizer constitutes a case of (i), and the one traditionally analysed as a movement strategy complementizer is a case of (ii). It is shown how this approach avoids some serious empirical problems posed by the previous analysis of the phenomenon. It is furthermore argued that the process underlying successive cyclic wh -movement in fact involves covert successive pied-piping of CPs, where covert pied-piping is understood as overt pied-piping of the features of CP

Aesthetics · Closure (psychology) · Complementizer · Covert · Epistemology · Head (geology) · Irish · Linguistics · Movement (music) · Phenomenon · Political science · Sociology · Syntax · Computer Science · Law · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation