On the relation between V-to-I and the structure of the inflectional paradigm

Bibliographic Data

ID20344185
AuthorsPeter Ackema (University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume18
Issue3
Publication date2001-01-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Linguistic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6318 • E-ISSN: 1613-3676
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/tlir.2001.002
OpenAlexW1965226994
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited14

In this paper an account is provided of the trigger for V-to-I movement.This account explains why relatively rich inflection involves a distinct inflectional node in the clausal structure whereas relatively poor inflection is base-generated on the verb (Rohrbacher 1999), without having to assume that there are two fundamentally different types of inflection.I will argue that there is not a direct causal connection between rich inflection and V-to-I but, rather, that the two are related because having V-to-I and not having rich inflection are alternative ways of avoiding a violation of the same constraint, namely a general constraint that disfavours complex structure below the word (X 0 ) level.This constraint is a ranked, violable constraint, as in the optimality-theoretic conception of grammar.Its interaction with two other relevant constraints, which concern economy of movement and realisation of the input in the output, will account for the fact that languages can vary in their tolerance level for the amount of inflection on unmoved verbs.The analysis thus explains why no single definition of richness can exactly divide the V-to-I languages from the non-V-to-I ones.It will also account for the English 'V-to-I for auxiliaries only' puzzle.1.For useful comments on earlier versions of this paper I would like to thank

Linguistics · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation