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Problems of Projection: Extensions

Chomsky, N. (2015). In Structures, Strategies and Beyond: Studies in Honour of Adriana Belletti (pp. 3–16). John Benjamins

Source Bibliography Paper

Chomsky 2015 takes T, like a root, to be too weak to label in a language with weak agreement like English, while Italian T, with rich agreement, labels by itself. T merged with its complement is then labeled only by agreement with a subject in its specifier, the EPP, and a subject moved on leaves T alone, unable to label, the ECP. A root merged with the object labels only once the object raises to its specifier and agrees with the φ-features the root inherits from v*, raising to object. Labels are computed at the phase level and kept: a deleted complementizer passes its phasehood to T, and v*, invisible once the root raises to it, passes its phasehood to the root, so that a subject or object labeled at their edge is free to move on. A wh-phrase raised out of its criterial position leaves the interrogative C to label the clause by itself, as a yes-no question.

Implementation notes

  • The phase heads are C and v*. An occurrence is labeled in the object built at its phase level (Minimalist.phaseLevel), and the label stays.
  • Transfer seals the complement of a phase head, or of the head inheriting its phasehood, once its phase is complete (Minimalist.Pic1). A phase is its head's projection by labels (HeadFunction.label), projection being labeling.
  • The matrix clauses of (2′), (3′) and (4) are cut down to the raised wh-phrase over the verb or do.
  • Weakness is fixed by the richness of agreement the paper attributes to a language.
  • A root inherits φ-features when minimal search finds it in the sister of v*.

TODO

  • The amalgam a root forms by raising to v*, with v* affixed and invisible, which needs head movement; and the crash at the conceptual-intentional interface of (1) read as a yes-no question.
  • The free order of operations of (8), evaluated at the phase level, which needs a derivation.

References

Weak heads and agreement

L72

Phases

L121–125

Categorizers and roots

Subjects of CP: EPP and ECP (2), (2′), (4)

Raising to object (3), (3′)

Criterial freezing (1)