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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60623 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Hubbertz, Andrew Paul |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Linguistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001260117, proquestno: AAIMM72238, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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