Clauses Without 'That': The Case for Bare Sentential Complementation in English

by Doherty,Cathal

• ISBN13: 9780815337751
• ISBN10: 0815337752
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This Study investigates the syntax of complement and relative clauses in English which lack overt complementizers (clauses withoutthat). The central analytical claim is that these clauses differ in phrase structure from their synonymous counterparts with overt complementizers. In particular, novel evidence from adjunction facts is used to demonstrate that clauses withoutthatare more appropriately analyzed as bare sentences of the category IP rather than CP with a phonologically null head, a proposal which has since been adopted in many economy-driven approaches to phrase structure. In addition to strong empirical support, the IP-analysis is shown to provide explanations for a variety of related syntactic phenomena, superior to those available under the previous CP-analysis. These include the restricted syntactic distribution ofthat-less complements, in addition to the adjacency restrictions onthat-less relative clauses. The analytical task posed by thethat-trace effect is also very much reduced under the IP-analysis. The work also examines the syntax of 'subject contact clauses' (e.g.There's a man wants to see you.), common in many non-standard varieties, including Hiberno-English and establishes that they have all the distinctive properties of otherthat-less relative clauses. This book will be of interest to a broad variety of readers: scholars working in all areas of generative syntax, specialists in English and Germanic syntax, in addition to researchers in non-standard English and Hiberno-English.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xiii
The Category of That-less clauses	3	(8)
Clause Structure	3	(2)
A Question	5	(3)
An Answer: the CP-Hypothesis	5	(2)
An Answer: the IP-Hypothesis	7	(1)
Outline of the Work	8	(3)
Notes	10	(1)
Argument Clauses	11	(46)
Introduction	11	(1)
Arguments for the IP-Hypothesis	12	(6)
Embedded Topicalization	12	(3)
Adverbial Adjunction	15	(2)
Adjunction Evidence: Summary	17	(1)
The Ecp Account of the Distribution of That-Less Clauses	18	(15)
The Government Requirement	19	(1)
Explaining the Government Requirement	20	(1)
C0 to V0 Incorporation	20	(4)
Head Government at Phonological Form	24	(3)
Conclusion	27	(1)
Empirical Problems	27	(1)
Embedded Sentential Subjects	27	(4)
Ungoverned Null Complementizers	31	(2)
Summary	33	(1)
Explaining the Distribution of IP	33	(7)
Previous Accounts: Webelhuth 1992	34	(4)
A Proposal	38	(2)
Chapter Summary	40	(1)
Appendix: Lexical Restrictions	41	(16)
Paradox: Selected Adjunct Clauses	42	(2)
A Resolution	44	(4)
Noun Complement Clauses	48	(2)
Notes	50	(7)
Relative Clauses	57	(46)
Introduction	57	(5)
Syntactic Properties of Contact Clauses	59	(2)
Restrictive Relative Clauses: Assumptions	61	(1)
The Structure of Contact Clauses	62	(9)
Contact Clauses are IP	62	(2)
The A-Chain in Contact Clauses	64	(1)
The Null Operator Approach	65	(1)
Proposal: A-Chains without Movement	66	(1)
The Adjacency Restriction	67	(3)
Summary	70	(1)
Subject Contact Clauses	71	(18)
Distribution: The Majority Dialect	72	(1)
Subject Contact Clauses as non-Relative Clauses	73	(2)
Independent Evidence for the Pseudo-Relative	75	(2)
Subject Contact Clauses as Pseudo-Relatives	77	(4)
Subject Contact Clauses are Relative Clauses	81	(6)
Distribution: Liberal Dialects	87	(2)
Summary	89	(1)
Explaining the Distribution of Subject Contact Clauses	89	(6)
Previous Accounts	90	(1)
Pragmatic Accounts	90	(1)
Non-Referentiality	91	(1)
The Distribution of Post-Nominal Modifiers	92	(3)
Chapter Summary	95	(8)
Notes	95	(8)
Extraction Theory	103	(22)
Introduction	103	(1)
The That-Trace Effect	104	(2)
Previous Accounts	106	(9)
Locality	107	(1)
Locality as Binding	107	(1)
Locality as Antecedent Government	108	(2)
The Head-Government Account	110	(2)
Agreement in Comp	112	(1)
Advantages of the Account	113	(1)
Some difficulties	114	(1)
Implications for Head-Government	115	(6)
Null Complementizers are Inert for Government	117	(1)
Vacuous Movement	118	(3)
Chapter Summary	121	(4)
Notes	122	(3)
Concluding Remarks	125	(6)
Introduction	125	(1)
Distribution of Non-Root IP	126	(1)
Extension to Bare Infinitives	127	(4)
Notes	130	(1)
Bibliography	131	(8)
Index	139