Holmberg (1997, 1999) assumes that Holmberg's generalisation (HG) is derivational, prohibiting Object Shift (OS) across an intervening non-adverbial element at any point in the derivation. Counterexamples to this hypothesis are given in Fox & Pesetsky (2005) which show that remnant VP-topicalisations are possible in Scandinavian as long as the VP-internal order relations are maintained. Extending the empirical basis concerning remnant VP-topicalisations, we argue that HG and the restrictions on object stranding result from the same, more general condition on order preservation. Considering this condition to be violable and to interact with various constraints on movement in an Optimality-theoretic fashion, we suggest an account for various asymmetries in the interaction between remnant VP-topicalisations and both OS and other movement operations (especially subject raising) as to their order preserving characteristics and stranding abilities.

Diese Arbeit geht der Frage nach, ob MPn im Schwedischen syntaktisch Satzadverbien sind. Es wird gezeigt, dass sie sich syntaktisch von Satzadverbien unterscheiden und sich ferner in zwei getrennte Typen von MPn unterteilen lassen. Hierzu wird eine syntaktische Analyse vorgestellt, die diese Unterscheidung in dem phrasalen Status der MPn widerspiegelt. Die syntaktische Analyse wird durch sechs Experimente empirisch bestätigen. Ferner wird gezeigt, dass, um die Linearisierung von Elementen im Mittelfeld, am Beispiel von MPn, DPn und Objektpronomen im Mittelfeld, erklären zu können, nicht nur syntaktische Argumente herangeführt werden können, sondern auch phonologische Aspekte berücksichtigt werden müssen. / This thesis answers the question whether the MPs in Swedish are different from sentence adverbs on the level of syntax. It shows that MPs do differ from sentence adverbs, and further, that the MPs must be divided into two types. I present a syntactic analysis of the MPs that accounts for the two types of MPs as elements of distinct phrasal statuses. The syntactic analysis is tested empirically in six experiments and the results verified the analysis. Further I show that in order to account for the linearisation of MPs and object pronouns in the middle field, not only syntactic but also phonological properties of all elements must be taken into consideration.

The term ‘Object Shift’ means that a weak object pronoun has been raised to a position to the left of a sentence adverbial. Primarily, there are two positions to which a weak object pronoun can be raised; one of them is called Long Object Shift. In this paper, I primarily deal with finite verb frequencies in sentences with Long Object Shift in Swedish. Also, in order to further define the verbs in these sentences I discuss verb semantic and syntactic valence in relation to the shifted object. Furthermore, I discuss the search methods which have generated sentences with Long Object Shift in written sources in Swedish; an equivalent study has never been done before.   The most salient results of my study indicate that: verbs with physical denotation, and specifically vänta, möta and slå, frequently recur in sentences with Long Object Shift in written sources in Swedish; monotransitive verbs appear more often than ditransitive ones; shifted objects are most often assigned the semantic role of experiencer in the studied sentences; the search methods show divergent results, which indicates the significance of sentence adverbial initiating sentences with Long Object Shift. Lastly, the results show that semantic analyses, terminology and search methods need to be extended in order to further define the finite verb in sentences with Long Object Shift in Swedish.

Cette thèse est centrée autour des problèmes concernant les constructions causatives du français et du chinois, elle se veut une contribution empirique et théorique à l’étude formelle des systèmes verbaux du français et du chinois. Il sera montré que la défectivité en traits des têtes de phases joue un rôle important motivant la formation des constructions au sein de ces deux langues. Concernant la construction causative en faire du francais, nous allons utiliser l’interprétation de respectivement comme test pour justifier son statut bi-propositionnel? et l’examen des relations quantificationnelles va montrer que le vP causativisé dans le complément de faire constitue une phase défective, sélectionnée par une autre tête fonctionnelle phasale. De plus, la défectivité du vP causativisé et les traits-phi intégrés aux clitiques donnent lieu aux distributions des différents clitiques. A la différence de la construction causative du francais qui implique un TP défectif dans une structure bi-propositionnelle, les verbes causatifs du chinois sélectionnent directement un v*P phasal et il n’y a plus de projection fonctionnelle intervenante. Il sera montré que le chinois fait aussi la distinction entre les Temps fini et infinitif, bien qu’une telle distinction ne se manifeste pas sur les formes morphologiques des verbes. Cette thèse va aussi examiner la corrélation entre les verbes rang/jiao/gei, nous allons montrer que leurs fonctions causative et passive désignent différentes structures argumentales, et il n’y a pas de relation dérivationnelle entre ces deux structures argumentales de ces verbes. En ce qui concerne la perspective théorique, il sera montré qu’il y a quatre structures phasales possibles correspondantes à de différentes structures argumentales des verbes causatifs du francais et du chinois? et cette thèse va aussi explorer la pertinence de la condition d’impénétrabilité de phase et de la condition de minimalité par rapport aux différentes opérations de la syntaxe étroite. / This dissertation concentrates on the problems concerning the causative constructions in French and in Chinese, it constitutes empirical and theoretical contributions to the formal study of French and Chinese verbal systems. It will be shown that the feature defectivity of phasal heads plays a key role motivating the formation of constructions in the two languages. Concerning the causative construction of faire in French, we will use the interpretation of Respectively as test to justify its bi-clausal status; and the exploration of the quantificational relations will show that the causativized vP in the complement of faire determines a defective phase, selected by another phasal functional head. In addition, the defectivity of the causativized vP and the phi-features integrated in the clitics result in the distribution of different types of clitics. Different from the causative construction in French involving a defective TP in a bi-clausal structure, Chinese causative verbs sub-categorize directly a phasal causativized v*P, and there is no other intervening phasal projections. It will be shown that Chinese distinguishes finite and infinitive Tenses as well, even such a distinction may not be manifested on verb forms. Concerning the verbs rang/jiao/gei in Chinese, we will show that their causative and passive functions carry out the different argument structures; and there is no derivational relation between the two argument structures of these verbs. Concerning the theoretic perspective, it will be shown that there are four phasal structures corresponding to the different argument structures of the causative verbs in French and in Chinese. In addition, this thesis will also explore the performance of the phase impenetrability condition and of the minimality condition with respect on different operations of the narrow syntax.

The main claim of this paper is that the minimalist framework and optimality theory adopt more or less the same architecture of grammar: both assume that a generator defines a set S of potentially well-formed expressions that can be generated on the basis of a given input, and that there is an evaluator that selects the expressions from S that are actually grammatical in a given language L. The paper therefore proposes a model of grammar in which the strengths of the two frameworks are combined: more specifically, it is argued that the computational system of human language CHL from MP creates a set S of potentially well-formed expressions, and that these are subsequently evaluated in an optimality theoretic fashion.