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Subject clitics and subject extraction in Somali

This study applies Chomsky's Barriers version of government binding theory to subject clitic pronouns and subject-verb agreement processes in Somali. It is proposed that Somali has a contrast between strong and weak subject-verb agreement, indicated as AGR$ sb{ rm S}$ and AGR$ sb{ rm W}$ respectively. SCL is possible iff AGR = AGR$ sb{ rm S}.$ SCL is obligatory if subject is pro, the null pronominal. SCL is excluded in case of short subject extraction, which is only possible from the domain of AGR$ sb{ rm W}.$ The prohibition against short subject extraction from the domain of AGR$ sb{ rm S}$ is attributed to Principle B of Aoun's generalized binding theory. Long subject extraction from the domain of AGR$ sb{ rm S}$ is possible if an intermediate trace in (NP,CP) deletes before binding theory. The analysis is extended to subject extraction in Italian, including the Trentino dialect, and Modern Irish.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60623
Date January 1991
CreatorsHubbertz, Andrew Paul
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of Linguistics.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001260117, proquestno: AAIMM72238, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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