Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from PDF file main screen (viewed on May 27, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

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published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 3, leaves 575-581). / This thesis is concerned with developing an account within the Government and Binding (GB) theory of the grammaticality of such structures as (1), and exploring the implications of this account for the theory of empty categories, chains, and scope. The hallmark characteristic of such grammatical S-Structure representations as (1) is that the anaphor is outside the c-command domain of its understood antecedent. The basic anaphoric effect is termed connectivity. 1) [which of each other's friends][did the men see t]? Chapter 1 is a brief overview of the necessary definitions presumed in the thesis, and an outline of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 introduces a large body of data which must be treated on a par with (1), and reviews and criticizes several existing proposals which have been made to account for (1). The chapter argues that the binding theory must apply to structures having the essential form of (1). We demonstrate that no treatment which involves lowering the anaphor into the c-command domain of the antecedent via "reconstruction" operations, or involves applying the Binding Theory at a level at which WH movement is not represented, can be maintained. Chapter 3 develops a revision of the binding theory, focusing on Condition A, which is capable of treating all the connectivity data in a unified way. The major formal construct proposed in the chapter is the chain accessibility sequence, essentially a path of nodes through which the potential antecedents for an expression are accessed. The revised binding theory is defined in terms of such sequences; as the name implies, the notion chain plays a prominent role. This approach to connectivity is developed in the spirit of the Path theory of Kayne (1983) and Pesetsky (1982). We also discuss properties of structures of the form of {l), but where the constituent containing the anaphor is predicative in nature. We shall see that the predicative nature of the constituent significantly constrains the possibilities of assigning the anaphor an antecedent. This chapter adopts, and argues in favor of, the Linking theory of binding introduced by Higginbotham (1983). Chapter 4 focuses on the theory of empty categories, arguing that it is desirable to construct the theory so that no empty categories bear binding features (the features[+/- anaphoric] and[+/- pronominal] are thus restricted to overt categories). This proposal, which I term the No Features Hypothesis, departs from the characteristic treatment of ECs in GB theory. The chapter adopts Brody's (1985) proposals concerning the distribution of PRO and NP-trace. We adopt, and later extend, the Local Binding Condition (LBC) on A chains, argued by Rizzi (1982) to constrain the well-formedness of A chains. We reformulate it in terms of Linking theory, as the Chain Obviation Condition (CCC), and argue that it holds of all chain types. This is shown to be a principle with considerable generality, subsuming the LBC, Condition C of the binding theory, and the anti-c-command condition on linking. Adopting the COC, along with the NFH, allows the elimination of the class R-expression from the inventory of binding types. It will be shown that the anti-c-command condition on parasitic gaps derives directly from the CCC, with no stipulations. The chapter concludes with a defense of the proposal that the theory of anaphora must recognize anaphoric dependence and obviation as separate relations (as argued by Lasnik (1976), (1981), and Higgginbotham (1985)). Chapter 5 discusses constraints on the interpretation of sentences in which a quantificational NP is the antecedent of an NP-trace which it does not c-command. These considerations lead us to formulate a constraint on movement operations. The chapter also argues that the operations of WH-movement and QR are strictly ordered in the LF component. / by Andrew Barss. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-241).

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This thesis proposes a modification of Chomsky's (1992) theory of locality to deal with restructuring phenomena which allow an apparent violation of the locality condition on certain local processes. Various restructuring phenomena including long-distance NP movement exemplified by long-distance Object Preposing (Chapter 2) and long-distance head movement exemplified by clitic climbing (Chapter 3) are examined cross linguistically. Long-distance anaphora (Chapter 4) are also examined based on the view the locality on various types of anaphor-antecedent relationships follow from the theory of movement. / It is argued that the peculiar behavior of restructuring constructions in terms of locality follows from the lexical properties of restructuring verbs that allows a defective Tense to occur in the complement clause. The following effects result: (i) Case checking within the embedded clause becomes impossible; (ii) the defective Tense triggers incorporation of the infinitive verb into the matrix verb. As a result, the embedded element that requires Case is forced to raise into the matrix clause as a last resort operation, hence motivation long-distance movement. / In order to reconcile long-distance movement with the economy principle which requires chain links to be minimal, this thesis refines Chomsky's (1992) theory of locality. The proposed hypothesis claims that the locality condition on certain operations such as NP movement and head movement follows from the economy principle in such a way that an element can move to the closest position in which its morphological requirement can be satisfied. This notion of the shortest movement is further clarified in that the domain in which the shortest movement requirement is satisfied can be extended if there is an appropriate linked chain formed by head movement. The proposed system not only provides principled account for the phenomena of restructuring, but also has some important implications for the notion of economy of derivation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1988. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1985. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-261).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Nicholas Asher. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.