This thesis investigates the phenomenon of for-to complements in several dialects, focusing primarily on Appalachian English, though Belfast English and Ottawa Valley English are also examined. Following Chomsky's Government and Binding theory, we develop an analysis of for-to that predicts the distribution of for-to complements based on the requirements of Case, and the varieties of licit movement of features allowed by each dialect. To do this, we propose a Revised Case Filter which requires functional categories bearing Case features to discharge Case. We also show that the features of functional categories can move either by head movement (allowing movement of to into for) or by feature transmission (allowing for to move into to). / Each of these mechanisms generates a specific range of well-formed for-to complements; the distribution of these complements can be predicted by the ways in which the dialects allow features to move. Appalachian English and Ottawa Valley English allow head movement of features only, while Belfast English allows features to move via head movement and feature transmission. Thus for-to complements are more wide-spread in Belfast English than in the other for-to dialects. Standard English, which does not allow features to move unless they are accompanied by lexical material, does not exhibit for-to complements at all.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59236 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Wade-Woolley, Lesly A. (Lesly Ann) |
| 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: 001066476, proquestno: AAIMM63409, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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