An intervention account of the distribution of main clause phenomena: Evidence from ellipsis

Based on an examination of some asymmetries between VP ellipsis and VP fronting, this paper argues for an intervention approach and against a truncation approach to the distribution of main clause phenomena in adverbial clauses and, by extension, in non-root contexts in general. Adopting Authier’s (...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Authier, J. Marc, Haegeman, Liliane
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/72668
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/72668
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Main clause phenomena
VP ellipsis
VP fronting
Repair by ellipsis
Truncation
Left periphery
Intervention
Adverbial clauses
Fenómenos de cláusula principal
Elipsis en el SV
Anteposición del SV
Reparación por elipsis
Truncamiento
Periferia izquierda
Intervención
Cláusulas adverbiales
Fenómenos de orações raíz
Elipse de VP
Fronteamento de VP
Reconstrução por elipse
Truncamento
Periferia esquerda
Intervenção
Orações adverbiais
Descripción
Sumario:Based on an examination of some asymmetries between VP ellipsis and VP fronting, this paper argues for an intervention approach and against a truncation approach to the distribution of main clause phenomena in adverbial clauses and, by extension, in non-root contexts in general. Adopting Authier’s (2011) treatment of VP ellipsis whereby the to-be-elided VP undergoes fronting in the computational component but fails to be spelled out at PF, these asymmetries follow from the fact that a fronted VP, being an intervener for wh-movement in adverbial clauses, triggers a PF crash unless ellipsis allows the derivation to converge via Bošković’s (2011) ‘rescue by PF deletion’ mechanism. This proposal entails that adverbial clauses are derived by wh-movement (Haegeman (2006) among others) and that the landing site for VP fronting is available in a non-root environment, two assumptions that militate against a truncation account of non-root clauses.