Empty Categories and Their Antecedents

Résumé du livre

This study, conducted within the Government-Binding framework (Chomsky (1981)), examines the formulation of principles directly governing the distribution of traces. Chapter I is an Introduction. Chapter II concerns the Empty Category Principle (ECP) as formulated by Lasnik and Saito (1984). We seek to derive two asymmetries in the gamma-assignment algorithm proposed. The first is an argument/nonargument asymmetry, whereby only an argument receives a gamma-feature at S-structure. We argue that this can be derived by reordering the level at which the ECP applies, while concurrently adopting independently motivated theories of indexing and movement. Other entailments of these theories are then investigated in some detail. The second asymmetry addressed is the existence of two formally unrelated forms of gamma-assignment: antecedent government and lexical proper government. To eliminate this asymmetry, we modify the reduction of lexical proper government to antecedent government proposed in Chomsky (1986). An argument/adjunct asymmetry in gamma-assignment resulting from this reduction is eliminated, while a restriction on the class of proper I governors (proposed by Lasnik and Saito (forthcoming)), Davis (1984, 1987) and Rizzi (1986) is supported. Under this restriction, May's (1985) theory of adjunction plays no direct role regarding the ECP. Certain pronominal variable binding phenomena are also shown not to support this particular theory of adjunction. Chapter III, concerning A-chains, begins with an investigation of 'Super Raising' representations, arguing that they are excluded by an interaction of the ECP and The Local Binding Condition. A precise formulation of the latter constraint is motivated (following Epstein (1986)) and is then simplified considerably. The final Chapter examines Case requirements on traces. We argue that, contrary to standard assumption, wh trace need not be Case-marked. This constitutes evidence, in addition to other evidence reviewed, against the Visibility Principle, while also permitting a simplification of the Case Filter, a filter we adopt. Finally, we investigate the commonly assumed requirement that NP-trace cannot be Case-marked. This requirement is shown to be inadequate. Alternative requirements are therefore proposed.