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Cyclic phonology-syntax-interaction : movement to first position in German

This paper investigates the nature of the attraction of XPs to clauseinitial
position in German (and other languages). It argues that there
are two different types of preposing. First, an XP can move when it is
attracted by an EPP-like feature of Comp. Comp can, however, also
attract elements that bear the formal marker of some semantic or
pragmatic (information theoretic) function. This second type of
movement is driven by the attraction of a formal property of the
moved element. It has often been misanalysed as “operator”
movement in the past.
Japanese <i>wh</i>-questions always exhibit focus intonation (FI). Furthermore,
the domain of FI exhibits a correspondence to the <i>wh</i>-scope. I
propose that this phonology-semantics correspondence is a result of
the cyclic computation of FI, which is explained under the notion of
<i>Multiple Spell-Out</i> in the recent Minimalist framework. The proposed
analysis makes two predictions: (1) embedding of an FI into another
is possible; (2) (overt) movement of a <i>wh</i>-phrase to a phase edge position
causes a mismatch between FI and <i>wh</i>-scope. Both predictions are
tested experimentally, and shown to be borne out.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:Potsdam/oai:kobv.de-opus-ubp:826
Date January 2004
CreatorsFanselow, Gisbert
PublisherUniversität Potsdam, Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät. Institut für Linguistik / Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Source SetsPotsdam University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceInterdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632. - Vol. 1
Rightshttp://opus.kobv.de/ubp/doku/urheberrecht.php

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