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Grammar and Discourse Principles

Functional Syntax and GB Theory

In Grammar and Discourse Principles, Susumu Kuno and Ken-ichi Takami critically examine recent work in the Government and Binding framework developed by Chomsky, Rizzi, Lasnik and Saito, Huang, Aoun, and others. They demonstrate that this work encounters a variety of empirical and theoretical difficulties when confronted by an expanded range of data. Alternatively, the authors offer independently motivated functional explanations that account for these data and that do not require postulation of concepts like "L-marking" and "blocking category."

Kuno and Takami begin by looking at extraction phenomena, including extraction from complement clauses, the overt subject requirement, and subjacency, and provide functional accounts that improve on the Barriers analysis. Next, they discuss multiple wh questions in English and Japanese, with special reference to why and naze. The authors also examine and ultimately reject the major arguments in support of Larson’s "light predicate raising" analysis. Finally, Kuno and Takami discuss coreferentiality of picture noun reflexives and the relation of quantifier scope interpretations, particularly those in sentences involving psychological verbs such as bother, worry, and please.

In this subtly argued book, the authors raise questions of critical importance for theoretical linguists of all persuasions.

232 pages | 6 x 9 | © 1993

Language and Linguistics: Syntax and Semantics

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Remarks on Barriers
1. Introduction
2. Extraction from [theta]-governed Complement Clauses (1)
3. Extraction from [theta]-governed Complement Clauses (2)
4. Overt Subject Requirement
5. Extraction from Non-[theta]-governed Complement Clauses
6. Subjacency
7. Extraction from Subjects
8. Rizzi’s (1990) Relativized Minimality
9. Wh-Extraction of Predicative APs
10. Functional Accounts of the AP-Extraction Phenomenon
11. Conclusion
3. Multiple Wh Questions: With Special Reference to Why and Naze ’Why’
1. Introduction
2. The So-called Complement/Noncomplement Asymmetry
3. Problems with Lasnik and Saito (1984, 1992)
4. Aoun et al. (1987)
5. Problems with Aoun et al. (1987)
6. An Alternative Explanation
7. Two Functional Constraints
8. Conclusion
4. Remarks on Light Predicate Raising
1. Introduction
2. Heavy NP Shift over a Predicative AP
3. "Freezing"
4. C-command (1)
5. C-command (2)
6. Conjunction in Datives
7. Some Additional Problems
8. Conclusion
5. Psych-Verbs, Binding Theory, and Quantifier Scope
1. Belletti and Rizzi’s Hypothesis regarding Picture-Noun Reflexives
2. Status of Principle C
3. Counterexamples to Belletti and Rizzi’s Hypothesis
4. Functional Explanation
5. Reciprocals
6. Psych-Verbs and Quantifier Scope
7. Conclusion
6. Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Author Index
Subject Index

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