Zeljko Boskovic
Biographic Data
| ID | 409864 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zeljko Boskovic |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zeljko |
| FAMILY NAME | Boskovic |
| SIGNATURE | BOSKOVIC Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Connecticut |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 542 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
On (partially) quirky subjects, numeral subjects, and subject-oriented anaphor binding: Nominal and non-nominal subjects and their structural positions
I examine certain quirky subjects that pass some but not all subjecthood tests, arguing they are PPs, located in a higher subject position than fully quirky subjects and agreeing subjects, in line with Bošković (2024), where non-nominal subjects satisfy the EPP in a higher position than nominal subjects. Regarding subject-oriented anaphors, in principle the element in any of the three positions where the EPP is satisfied in Bošković (2024a) and t…
On wh and subject positions, the EPP, and contextuality of syntax
By examining local subject A’-movement, the paper argues for a split IP and a contextual approach to the EPP where its locus is not a fixed, unique position, but varies depending on the syntactic context. The landing site of subject wh-movement ( who left ) is argued to be lower than non-subject wh-movement ( who did he leave ) but higher than regular subjects ( Amy left ). Quirky subjects are argued to be lower than agreeing subjects, with a gen…
On the Limits of Across-the-Board Movement: Distributed Extraction Coordinations
The paper examines distributed extraction coordinations, in which different elements move out of conjuncts of a single coordination, as in Which book and which magazine did Mary buy and Amy read respectively, from a crosslinguistic perspective. A number of properties of such coordinations are discussed, which includes showing that they are also subject to the ATB requirement, which will shed light on the nature of the ATB phenomenon itself. It is…
On Movement out of Moved Elements, Labels, and Phases
The article deduces a modified version of the traditional ban on movement out of moved elements that provides a new perspective on it. Under the proposed analysis, the problem with the movement of YP out of moved XP does not arise at the point where YP moves out of XP, as in previous accounts. Instead, it arises already with the movement of XP: XP itself cannot undergo movement in this case. Any later movement out of XP is then trivially blocked.…
Extraction from Complex NPs and Detachment
This chapter overviews a number of issues regarding extraction out of complex NPs, starting with the traditional ban on extraction out of complex NPs (i.e. NPs modified by clauses), referred to as the Complex NP Constraint. The chapter also discusses cross‐linguistic variation regarding extraction of NP‐adjuncts and extraction of nominal complements. While languages differ with respect to such extraction when the relevant NP functions as a verbal…
What is sent to spell-out is phases, not phasal complements
An appealing property of the phase theory is that it is relevant to many phenomena, i.e. many domain-based mechanisms are stated in terms of phases. However, although phasal complements have no theoretical status in the phase theory (only phases do), they are taken to define spell-out units. This paper argues for an approach where phases define spell-out domains, which means that what is sent to spell-out is the phase itself. Several arguments to…
On the timing of labeling: Deducing Comp-trace effects, the Subject Condition, the Adjunct Condition, and tucking in from labeling
The article provides a uniform account of a number of locality effects, in particular, the Subject Condition, the Adjunct Condition, Richards’s (
Getting Really Edgy: On the Edge of the Edge
The article argues that in constructions where there is more than one phrase at a phasal edge, only the highest edge is available for movement and anaphor binding. This shows that only the outermost edge counts as the edge of a phase for the Phase Impenetrability Condition ( PIC). The article also demonstrates that moving the element that counts as the phasal edge in multiple specifier/adjunct cases can affect the PIC status of the remaining edge…
From the Complex NP Constraint to everything: On deep extractions across categories
The article establishes a new generalization concerning domains from which extraction is possible. Taking as the starting point the well-known difference between NPs and VPs regarding extraction, where extraction from Complex NPs is not possible while extraction from Complex VPs is possible, the article argues that the former represents a pervasive pattern found in many contexts, the latter being highly exceptional. More precisely, extraction is …
Now I’m a Phase, Now I’m Not a Phase: On the Variability of Phases with Extraction and Ellipsis
On the basis of a number of cases where the status of X with respect to phasehood changes depending on the syntactic context in which X occurs, I argue for a contextual approach to phasehood whereby the highest phrase in the extended projection of all lexical categories—N, P, A, and V (passive and active)—functions as a phase. The relevant arguments concern extraction and ellipsis. I argue that ellipsis is phase-constrained: only phases and compl…
Rescue by PF Deletion, Traces as (Non)interveners, and the That-Trace Effect
The article demonstrates that the rescue-by-PF-deletion account of the amelioration effect of island violations under ellipsis, originally noted by Ross (1969), can be extended to account for the that-trace effect, including the adverb amelioration effect, and the lack of intervention effects with certain null arguments that are otherwise found with their overt counterparts, as well as to deduce the generalizations that traces do not count as int…
Unifying first and last conjunct agreement
On the operator freezing effect
On the Locality and Motivation of Move and Agree: An Even More Minimal Theory
The article proposes a new theory of successive-cyclic movement that reconciles the early and the current minimalist approaches to it. As in the early approach, there is no feature checking in intermediate positions of successive-cyclic movement. However, as in the current approach and unlike in early minimalism, successive-cyclic movement starts before the final target of movement enters the structure, and Form Chain is eliminated. The locality …
Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs
July 01 2006 Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs In Special Collection: CogNet Željko Bošković Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2006 Linguistic Inquiry (2006) 37 (3): 522–533. https…
On the locality of left branch extraction and the structure of NP
This paper argues that left branch extraction from NP is local, contra recent claims in the literature. It shows that the data motivating non-locality are misanalyzed, and that a proper analysis supports the traditional view. The paper also proposes a new structure for NP, which accounts for the locality of left branch extraction and other phenomena related to NP-internal word order
Be careful where you float your quantifiers
Topicalization, Focalization, Lexical Insertion, and Scrambling
In this reply, I show that Russian examples that Bailyn (2001) uses to argue against Bošković and Takahashi's (1998) analysis of scrambling are irrelevant to the analysis because they in fact do not involve scrambling. I also establish a crosslinguistic correlation between lack of articles and availability of scrambling and provide an account of the correlation under Bošković and Takahashi's approach to scrambling
On wh-islands and obligatory wh-movement contexts in South Slavic
The goal of this paper is to examine Wh-islands effects in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian (SC) and constructions in which SC must have Wh-movement. The starting point will be Rudin’s (1988) seminal paper on the structure of multiple Wh-fronting (MWF) constructions in Bulgarian and SC. In section 1 of the paper I briefly summarize Rudin’s (1988) analysis as well as a modification of Rudin’s analysis of SC from my previous work (see Boskovic 1997b, 1…
On the Distribution of Null Complementizers
The article provides a comprehensive account of the distribution of the null complementizer in English that does not appeal to the notion of government, thus contributing to the minimalist goal of eliminating arbitrary relations such as government. The account is based on Pesetsky's (1992) proposal that the null complementizer is a PF affix, which we instantiate through the affix-hopping approach to affixation. We also provide an account of sever…
Clitics as Nonbranching Elements and the Linear Correspondence Axiom
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2002
On Multiple Wh-Fronting
I show that multiple wh-fronting languages (MWFL) do not behave uniformly regarding wh-movement and eliminate MWFL from the crosslinguistic typology concerning wh-movement in multiple questions. Regarding when they have wh-movement, MWFL behave like non-MWFL: some behave like English (they always have wh-movement), some like Chinese (they never have it), and some like French (they have it optionally although, as in French, wh-movement is sometime…
A-movement and the EPP
The article argues that the EPP should be eliminated. It is shown that in a number of constructions the EPP does not hold at all. Where it does appear to hold, its effects follow from independent mechanisms of the grammar. EPP effects concerning the final landing site of A-movement follow from Case theory. Intermediate [Spec,IP]s are filled as a result of the requirement of successive cyclicity (i.e., locality); otherwise they remain empty, which…
On the Nature of the Syntax-Phonology Interface: Cliticization and Related Phenomena
The theoretical domain of investigation of this volume is the nature of the syntax-phonology interface. The empirical domain of investigation is cliticization in South Slavic. The volume also examines several phenomena that raise theoretical issues related to those involved in South Slavic cliticization, namely, multiple wh-fronting in Slavic and Romanian, Germanic V-2, object shift and stylistic fronting in Scandinavian, and negation in Romance.…
On the interpretation of multiple questions
The paper shows that crosslinguistically, overt movement of a wh-phrase to SpecCP results in the loss of the single-pair interpretation for multiple questions, i.e. it forces the pair-list interpretation. It is shown that the damaging effect of overt movement to SpecCP on the availability of single-pair answers can be accounted for with an extension of Hagstrom s (1998) semantics of questions to languages with overt wh-movement. More precisely, t…
A-movement and the EPP
The article argues that the EPP should be eliminated. It is shown that in a number of constructions the EPP does not hold at all. Where it does appear to hold, its effects follow from independent mechanisms of the grammar. EPP effects concerning the final landing site of A-movement follow from Case theory. Intermediate [Spec,IP]s are filled as a result of the requirement of successive cyclicity (i.e., locality); otherwise they remain empty, which…
On the locality of left branch extraction and the structure of NP
This paper argues that left branch extraction from NP is local, contra recent claims in the literature. It shows that the data motivating non-locality are misanalyzed, and that a proper analysis supports the traditional view. The paper also proposes a new structure for NP, which accounts for the locality of left branch extraction and other phenomena related to NP-internal word order
On the Locality and Motivation of Move and Agree: An Even More Minimal Theory
The article proposes a new theory of successive-cyclic movement that reconciles the early and the current minimalist approaches to it. As in the early approach, there is no feature checking in intermediate positions of successive-cyclic movement. However, as in the current approach and unlike in early minimalism, successive-cyclic movement starts before the final target of movement enters the structure, and Form Chain is eliminated. The locality …
Now I’m a Phase, Now I’m Not a Phase: On the Variability of Phases with Extraction and Ellipsis
On the basis of a number of cases where the status of X with respect to phasehood changes depending on the syntactic context in which X occurs, I argue for a contextual approach to phasehood whereby the highest phrase in the extended projection of all lexical categories—N, P, A, and V (passive and active)—functions as a phase. The relevant arguments concern extraction and ellipsis. I argue that ellipsis is phase-constrained: only phases and compl…
On Multiple Wh-Fronting
I show that multiple wh-fronting languages (MWFL) do not behave uniformly regarding wh-movement and eliminate MWFL from the crosslinguistic typology concerning wh-movement in multiple questions. Regarding when they have wh-movement, MWFL behave like non-MWFL: some behave like English (they always have wh-movement), some like Chinese (they never have it), and some like French (they have it optionally although, as in French, wh-movement is sometime…
Scrambling and Last Resort
Under the standard analysis (e.g., Fukui 1993, Saito 1985, 1992), scrambling in Japanese raises a serious problem for the last resort view of Move α, since it is considered to involve optional overt movement that has no driving force. In this article we propose a new analysis of scrambling that puts scrambling in conformity with the Last Resort principle. We argue that scrambled elements are base-generated in their surface non-θ-positions and und…
Be careful where you float your quantifiers
Rescue by PF Deletion, Traces as (Non)interveners, and the That-Trace Effect
The article demonstrates that the rescue-by-PF-deletion account of the amelioration effect of island violations under ellipsis, originally noted by Ross (1969), can be extended to account for the that-trace effect, including the adverb amelioration effect, and the lack of intervention effects with certain null arguments that are otherwise found with their overt counterparts, as well as to deduce the generalizations that traces do not count as int…
Unifying first and last conjunct agreement
On the Distribution of Null Complementizers
The article provides a comprehensive account of the distribution of the null complementizer in English that does not appeal to the notion of government, thus contributing to the minimalist goal of eliminating arbitrary relations such as government. The account is based on Pesetsky's (1992) proposal that the null complementizer is a PF affix, which we instantiate through the affix-hopping approach to affixation. We also provide an account of sever…
Getting Really Edgy: On the Edge of the Edge
The article argues that in constructions where there is more than one phrase at a phasal edge, only the highest edge is available for movement and anaphor binding. This shows that only the outermost edge counts as the edge of a phase for the Phase Impenetrability Condition ( PIC). The article also demonstrates that moving the element that counts as the phasal edge in multiple specifier/adjunct cases can affect the PIC status of the remaining edge…
On certain violations of the Superiority Condition, AgrO, and economy of derivation
This paper examines Superiority effects with VP internal constituents in English, Spanish and Bulgarian. It is argued in the paper that certain data concerning Superiority effects provide evidence for the existence of AgrO. In particular, they provide evidence that Accusative wh -phrases undergoing syntactic wh -movement must move to SpecAgrOP on their way to SpecCP. The data examined in the paper are also shown to provide support for the Economy…
Participle movement and second position cliticization in Serbo-Croatian
How Strict Is the Cycle
October 01 1999 How Strict Is the Cycle? In Special Collection: CogNet Željko Bošković, Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Howard Lasnik Howard Lasnik University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Howard Lasnik University of Connecticut Online ISSN: 1530-9…
On Movement out of Moved Elements, Labels, and Phases
The article deduces a modified version of the traditional ban on movement out of moved elements that provides a new perspective on it. Under the proposed analysis, the problem with the movement of YP out of moved XP does not arise at the point where YP moves out of XP, as in previous accounts. Instead, it arises already with the movement of XP: XP itself cannot undergo movement in this case. Any later movement out of XP is then trivially blocked.…
Topicalization, Focalization, Lexical Insertion, and Scrambling
In this reply, I show that Russian examples that Bailyn (2001) uses to argue against Bošković and Takahashi's (1998) analysis of scrambling are irrelevant to the analysis because they in fact do not involve scrambling. I also establish a crosslinguistic correlation between lack of articles and availability of scrambling and provide an account of the correlation under Bošković and Takahashi's approach to scrambling
An Argument for Multiple Spell-Out
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 32, Number 1, Winter 2001
Superiority effects with multiple wh-fronting in Serbo-Croatian
On the operator freezing effect
Selection and the categorial status of infinitival complements
Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs
July 01 2006 Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs In Special Collection: CogNet Željko Bošković Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2006 Linguistic Inquiry (2006) 37 (3): 522–533. https…
Clitics as Nonbranching Elements and the Linear Correspondence Axiom
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2002
Comprehension of nonlexical categories in agrammatism
Participle movement and second position cliticization in Serbo-Croatian
Selection and the categorial status of infinitival complements
On certain violations of the Superiority Condition, AgrO, and economy of derivation
This paper examines Superiority effects with VP internal constituents in English, Spanish and Bulgarian. It is argued in the paper that certain data concerning Superiority effects provide evidence for the existence of AgrO. In particular, they provide evidence that Accusative wh -phrases undergoing syntactic wh -movement must move to SpecAgrOP on their way to SpecCP. The data examined in the paper are also shown to provide support for the Economy…
Superiority effects with multiple wh-fronting in Serbo-Croatian
Scrambling and Last Resort
Under the standard analysis (e.g., Fukui 1993, Saito 1985, 1992), scrambling in Japanese raises a serious problem for the last resort view of Move α, since it is considered to involve optional overt movement that has no driving force. In this article we propose a new analysis of scrambling that puts scrambling in conformity with the Last Resort principle. We argue that scrambled elements are base-generated in their surface non-θ-positions and und…
The Syntax of Nonfinite Complementation: An Economy Approach
Formal] Approaches to [Slavic] Linguistics: The Connecticut Meeting 1997
How Strict Is the Cycle
October 01 1999 How Strict Is the Cycle? In Special Collection: CogNet Željko Bošković, Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Howard Lasnik Howard Lasnik University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Howard Lasnik University of Connecticut Online ISSN: 1530-9…
Second Position Cliticisation: Syntax and/or Phonology?
On the Nature of the Syntax-Phonology Interface: Cliticization and Related Phenomena
The theoretical domain of investigation of this volume is the nature of the syntax-phonology interface. The empirical domain of investigation is cliticization in South Slavic. The volume also examines several phenomena that raise theoretical issues related to those involved in South Slavic cliticization, namely, multiple wh-fronting in Slavic and Romanian, Germanic V-2, object shift and stylistic fronting in Scandinavian, and negation in Romance.…
On the interpretation of multiple questions
The paper shows that crosslinguistically, overt movement of a wh-phrase to SpecCP results in the loss of the single-pair interpretation for multiple questions, i.e. it forces the pair-list interpretation. It is shown that the damaging effect of overt movement to SpecCP on the availability of single-pair answers can be accounted for with an extension of Hagstrom s (1998) semantics of questions to languages with overt wh-movement. More precisely, t…
An Argument for Multiple Spell-Out
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 32, Number 1, Winter 2001
Clitics as Nonbranching Elements and the Linear Correspondence Axiom
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2002
On Multiple Wh-Fronting
I show that multiple wh-fronting languages (MWFL) do not behave uniformly regarding wh-movement and eliminate MWFL from the crosslinguistic typology concerning wh-movement in multiple questions. Regarding when they have wh-movement, MWFL behave like non-MWFL: some behave like English (they always have wh-movement), some like Chinese (they never have it), and some like French (they have it optionally although, as in French, wh-movement is sometime…
A-movement and the EPP
The article argues that the EPP should be eliminated. It is shown that in a number of constructions the EPP does not hold at all. Where it does appear to hold, its effects follow from independent mechanisms of the grammar. EPP effects concerning the final landing site of A-movement follow from Case theory. Intermediate [Spec,IP]s are filled as a result of the requirement of successive cyclicity (i.e., locality); otherwise they remain empty, which…
On wh-islands and obligatory wh-movement contexts in South Slavic
The goal of this paper is to examine Wh-islands effects in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian (SC) and constructions in which SC must have Wh-movement. The starting point will be Rudin’s (1988) seminal paper on the structure of multiple Wh-fronting (MWF) constructions in Bulgarian and SC. In section 1 of the paper I briefly summarize Rudin’s (1988) analysis as well as a modification of Rudin’s analysis of SC from my previous work (see Boskovic 1997b, 1…
On the Distribution of Null Complementizers
The article provides a comprehensive account of the distribution of the null complementizer in English that does not appeal to the notion of government, thus contributing to the minimalist goal of eliminating arbitrary relations such as government. The account is based on Pesetsky's (1992) proposal that the null complementizer is a PF affix, which we instantiate through the affix-hopping approach to affixation. We also provide an account of sever…
Be careful where you float your quantifiers
Topicalization, Focalization, Lexical Insertion, and Scrambling
In this reply, I show that Russian examples that Bailyn (2001) uses to argue against Bošković and Takahashi's (1998) analysis of scrambling are irrelevant to the analysis because they in fact do not involve scrambling. I also establish a crosslinguistic correlation between lack of articles and availability of scrambling and provide an account of the correlation under Bošković and Takahashi's approach to scrambling
On the locality of left branch extraction and the structure of NP
This paper argues that left branch extraction from NP is local, contra recent claims in the literature. It shows that the data motivating non-locality are misanalyzed, and that a proper analysis supports the traditional view. The paper also proposes a new structure for NP, which accounts for the locality of left branch extraction and other phenomena related to NP-internal word order
Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs
July 01 2006 Case Checking versus Case Assignment and the Case of Adverbial NPs In Special Collection: CogNet Željko Bošković Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Željko Bošković University of Connecticut Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2006 Linguistic Inquiry (2006) 37 (3): 522–533. https…
On the Locality and Motivation of Move and Agree: An Even More Minimal Theory
The article proposes a new theory of successive-cyclic movement that reconciles the early and the current minimalist approaches to it. As in the early approach, there is no feature checking in intermediate positions of successive-cyclic movement. However, as in the current approach and unlike in early minimalism, successive-cyclic movement starts before the final target of movement enters the structure, and Form Chain is eliminated. The locality …
On the operator freezing effect
Unifying first and last conjunct agreement
Linguistics (32 works) · Computer Science (31 works) · Philosophy (31 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (28 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (14 works) · Mathematics (12 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (9 works) · Syntax (9 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (8 works)