寺田 寛

This study is primarily concerned with the question of how a certain type of remnant movement satisfies the Proper Binding Condition (PBC), the requirement that a trace be bound. Remnant movement is generally delineated as [… [β … tα …] … α … [… tβ …] …], in which remnant category β contains a trace of α, and yet is not overtly bound by α. Several studies on this topic have attempted to reduce the PBC to locality conditions such as the Minimal Link Condition, Phase Impenetrability Condition, and so on. The purpose of this study is to argue that a version of the PBC must be preserved independently and that PBC-effects on remnant movement are accommodated, according to the types of reconstruction applied to remnant categories.∗. © 2004, The English Linguistic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

This article explores from a minimalistic point of view the so-called seem as if construction with expletive subjects, which we refer to as the multiple expletive construction. This construction involves more than one expletive there that is related to a single associate via remote and multiple agreement, i.e., finite verbs of both matrix and embedded clauses agree with the associate. The theoretical interest of this construction concerns questions as to whether there carries Case or not, and how the associate NP undergoes Case-checking and enters into an agreement relation with more than one checking head. I argue that the answer lies in considerations of structure building. © 2000, The English Linguistic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

Successive cyclic wh-movement is an operation contingent on the information available at a later stage of the derivation. For this reason, the conventional bottom-up view of structure-building would inevitably induce look-ahead properties or backtracking of computation. This paper explores successive cyclic wh-movement within Phillips' (1996, 1998) top-down approach to structure-building, assuming contra Chomsky (1995, 1998b) that lexical arrays are eliminated, that computation multiply accesses the lexicon, and that Merge (combined with Agree) does not preempt Move. I speculate on technical implementation of the top-down approach and discuss its extensions to observed properties of A/A'-movement.

The purpose of this paper is to provide support for the Single Output Hypothesis (SOH), arguing against Chomsky's (1995: Chapter 4) view that weak features attract formal features after Spell-Out. The SOH advanced here is implemented in such a way that movement operations triggered by either strong or weak features take place before Spell-Out. Strong features require pied-piping of a whole category, while weak features attract formal features. This hypothesis makes it possible to improve Chomsky's proposals surrounding strict cyclicity, derivational c-command, immobility of traces, adjacency effects, and Q-insertion. It also weakens the motivations of certain global economy conditions. © 1998, The English Linguistic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

This article explores within the Minimalist framework the distribution of strict readings of reflexives in VP-ellipsis: the strict readings are disfavored when a reflexive appears in a coargument position of a predicate and the two elliptically related clauses are coordinated. This fact is shown to be predictable by a modified version of Fox's (1995) theory which assumes that some form of Parallelism premised on PF-deletion of a VP requires parallel feature-checking. Economy considerations also play a decisive role in this framework. Further, the article suggests a way of solving some quantifier-scope phenomena that would not fall out under Fox's theory.∗. © 1997, The English Linguistic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the nature of scope-marking questions in Hindi-Urdu. Chomsky (1993) proposes within a minimalist program that a wh-operator cross-linguistically moves in overt syntax. Based on this proposal, we claim that the overt movement of a null operator for a wh-phrase in Hindi is both partial and multiple: it raises more than one null operator only to the Spec of the closest tensed CP that could be different from its actual scope position. There are some pieces of evidence in favor of the existence of such movement. Thus, a null operator moved constitutes an island for scrambling (Wh-Island effects) and rightward scrambling blocks null operator movement (Freezing effects). Although wh-in-situ in a tensed CP cannot be assigned scope over higher clauses, an operation of inserting a scope marker KYA in such clauses allows the wh-in-situ to take wider scope. The partial movement of a null operator is driven by the morphological necessity that is associated with KYA-insertion: a verb in a clause where KYA is inserted selects a [ + wh] CP, whose head contains a strong operator-feature that must be checked off via the overt partial movement of a null operator. The partially moved null operator is unselectively bound by the scope-marker at LF and then can extend its scope over higher clauses. We thus characterize Hindi-Urdu as a partial wh-movement language on a par with German, Romani and Iraqi Arabic.

An r-expression embedded within an NP, when fronted to a sentence-initial position, cannot be coreferential with the matrix subject. Such disjoint reference, however, disappears or becomes considerably weakened when the antecedent of the r-expression is deeply embedded. We thus propose within the minimalist program that at LF an A'-chain of an argument must have a tripartite (operator-restriction-variable) structure and that the restriction containing an r-expression can be “reconstructed” into any position between the operator and the variable. Thus we can derive the weakening of disjoint reference, since the r-expression can escape from the c-command domain of deeply embedded arguments. © 1995, The English Linguistic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

The aim of this article is to shed some light on the tense effect on LF movement of wh-in-situ in Hindi-Urdu. Although these languages lack syntactic wh-movement, wh-interrogatives are not allowed to appear in tensed islands, while they are allowed in untensed ones. This is contrary to what is generally known about wh-in-situ in English, which does not obey Subjacency. This tense effect is provided with a desirable account on the basis of Generalized Binding theory and by assuming a parameter of Hindi-Urdu that tensed C qualifies as a SUBJECT. A wh-trace (an A'-anaphor) must be A'-bound by its antecedent in its binding domain, which is tensed CP, not tenseless CP. When the specifier position of tensed CP is occupied by some element such as a relative pronoun and the antecedent of a trace is not allowed to occur in the clause, the trace is not A'-bound in its domain, violating Condition (A) of generalized binding. Hence interrogatives are excluded from tensed relative and adjunct clauses, resulting in the tense effect. Our analysis also accounts for the fact that wh-in-situ is insensitive to other island conditions and lacks subject-object asymmetries. We also show that the Empty Category Principle and Subjacency at LF do not provide a satisfactory account for the tense effect.