Proleptic objects as complex-NPs

Abstract

Proleptic (or prothetic) objects (Majaliwa remembered about Samson that he’s sick) present a particular puzzle because they appear to instantiate an unconstrained cross-clausal dependency between the proleptic object (Samson) and a correlate (he). The current analytical approach to prolepsis is relies on a syntactic mechanism of treating the embedded clause as a predicate, derived by merging a null operator which unselectively binds the correlate. This approach faces a number of known empirical challenges. Moreover, this work does not meaningfully engage with any of the recent semantic innovations in our understanding of embedded clauses (Kratzer 2006. Decomposing attitude verbs. Available at: http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DcwY2JkM/attitude-verbs2006.pdf). I offer an alternative to the CP-predicate approach, adopting three (semi-)independently motivated ideas concerning (i) the syntax of cross-clausal dependencies in Lohninger et al. (2022. From prolepsis to hyperraising. Philosophies 7(32)), (ii) the semantics of embedded clauses in Kratzer (2006. Decomposing attitude verbs. Available at: http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DcwY2JkM/attitude-verbs2006.pdf)/Moulton (2009. Not moving clauses: Connectivity in clausal arguments. Syntax 16(3). 250–291), and (iii) the semantics of about in Rawlins (2013. About about. Proceedings of SALT 23. 336–357)/Onea and Mardale (2020. From topic to object, grammaticalization differential object marking in Romanian. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 65(3). 350–392). I argue that proleptic objects are complex-NPs, roughly, the thing about Samson. The somewhat particular properties of prolepsis are natural consequences of these combined ideas. I further present empirical evidence from Japanese that the complex-NP analysis is on the right track. This analysis deepens our understanding of prolepsis by including both semantic and syntactic factors.