| ROA: | 1035 |
|---|---|
| Title: | On the Ungrammaticality of Remnant Movement in the Derivation of Greenberg's Universal 20 |
| Authors: | Sam Steddy, Vieri Samek-Lodovici |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 21 |
| Abstract: | We propose an OT analysis that derives the crosslinguistic typology described in Cinque (2005) concerning the grammatical and ungrammatical linear orders involving a demonstrative, a numeral, an adjective, and a noun. We show that the interaction of four simple constraints, respectively requiring leftward alignment of demonstratives, numerals, adjectives, and nouns, is sufficient to derive all the attested orders. The analysis also explains why, as Cinque pointed out, all unattested orders involve remnant movement. We show that remnant movement of the type considered in Cinque (2005) inevitably produces inherently suboptimal alignment configurations, which, in turn, are harmonically bounded by their remnant-movement-free counterparts. This result allows us to avoid stipulating conditions aimed at blocking remnant movement as proposed in Cinque (2005). Any movement is potentially possible, remnant movement included, but the resulting structures only surface as grammatical when instantiating the best possible alignment configuration for at least one constraint ranking. Indeed, we show that even remnant movement becomes grammatical when it determines optimal alignment. Finally, we show how Cinque’s original analysis closely records the structural derivations of the attested orders into the parametric values necessary to distinguish the attested languages from each other. In contrast, the proposed OT analysis need not stipulate the structural properties of any attested structure, letting them all emerge from the interaction of the proposed constraints. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Syntax |
| Article: | Version 1 |