Quirks of subject (non-)extraction in Igbo

Amaechi, Mary; Georgi, Doreen

doi:10.5334/gjgl.607

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…We will contrast focus fronting (focus ex-situ) and topicalization applied to direct objects (DO); we will comment on other grammatical functions and on other Ā-dependencies later. This section summarizes the results of our previous work on the morphosyntax of focus fronting (including ex-situ wh-questions) in Igbo, see Amaechi and Georgi (2019); the language-specific tests as well as the cyclicity and topicalization data 4 Previous studies of the Igbo clause structure differ in the number of projections postulated in the CP-and TP-domains, and in how far V moves: to Affirmative (Déchaine 1993;Amaechi 2020) or to T (Amaechi and Georgi 2019). Nothing hinges on this for our purposes.…”

Section: Base-generation Vs ā-Movement In Igbomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gaps and RPs are in complementary distribution in Igbo. Amaechi and Georgi (2019) propose that exsitu foci and topics occupy different left-peripheral positions in a split CP à la Rizzi (1997). A focus XP targets the specifier of FocP, whose head is realized by the focus marker kà, see DO-focus in (14a); topics are base-merged in the higher SpecTopP, see a .…”

Section: Do Topicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4) for an analysis. 13 There is one exception to this generalization: Amaechi and Georgi (2019); Amaechi (2020) show that subjects in Igbo cannot undergo focus or wh-movement in the minimal clause, but have to stay in their for focus fronting also hold for other Ā-movement dependencies such as ex-situ whquestion formation (which has the same syntax as focus ex-situ, see…”

Section: Do Topicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Uwalaka 1991;Amaechi and Georgi 2019), relativization (which involves empty operator movement, see Amaechi 2020: Ch. 2.3), and constructions based on them (clefts), see Goldsmith 1981; Amaechi 2020: Ch.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Resumption in Igbo: Two types of resumptives, complex phi-mismatches, and dynamic deletion domains

Georgi

Amaechi

2022

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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This paper investigates the morphosyntax of resumption in Igbo (Benue-Congo). The first part addresses the syntax and argues that Igbo has two types of resumptive pronouns (RPs): (i) RPs that terminate base-generation Ā-dependencies, and (ii) RPs at the bottom of Ā-movement dependencies. While similar splits have been claimed to exist in a few other languages, established with a limited data set, Igbo provides pervasive evidence for the co-existence of both types within the same language: type-(ii) RPs occur in all Ā-movement dependencies, and there is comprehensive evidence from a variety of movement tests, including also cyclicity effects, parasitic gap licensing, and language-specific diagnostics. We pursue a spell-out approach to type-(ii) RPs à la Pesetsky (1998) and Landau (2006), and discuss potential reasons behind their restricted distribution: type-(ii) RPs only surface in PPs, DPs, and &Ps, which are thus not (absolute) islands in Igbo. The second part of the paper deals with the morphological side of resumption, viz., with phi- and (alleged) case mismatches between the RP and its antecedent. The phi-mismatch provides further evidence for two types of RPs in Igbo. Moreover, it is more complex than the mismatches reported so far in the literature since the loss of phi-information depends on the type of antecedent (pro/noun, coordination). This pattern poses a challenge for previous accounts of phi-mismatches with movement-derived RPs that are based on static deletion domains. We propose that the cross-linguistic variation in phi-mismatches can be captured in a partial copy deletion approach along the lines of van Urk (2018) if the amount of structure that is deleted is defined dynamically. This further supports the relevance of dynamic domains in morphosyntax, in particular in postsyntactic operations, as previously identified in other areas, e.g., in Moskal’s (2015b) work on contextual allomorphy. Finally, we show that the “case” mismatch is a consequence of the (supra)segmental nature of the relevant exponent and the relative timing of the operations involved.

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Section: Base-generation Vs ā-Movement In Igbomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Do Topicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Do Topicmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Resumption in Igbo: Two types of resumptives, complex phi-mismatches, and dynamic deletion domains

Georgi

Amaechi

2022

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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“…This particular anti-locality constraint has been adopted in a range of recent work, including Bošković (2016), Douglas (2016;, Amaechi & Georgi (2019), Deal (2019), Issah & Smith (2020), and Branan (2020). In particular, although originally formulated in Erlewine (2014;2016) as a constraint on Ā-movement, Deal (2019) has argued that the constraint holds of A-movement as well and so I give the "generalized" formulation here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-locality and subject extraction

Erlewine

2020

Glossa

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In many languages, Ā-extraction of local subject arguments behaves differently from the extraction of other arguments, for example in triggering specialized morphosyntactic processes or being subject to additional restrictions. I argue that many such interactions are due to an anti-locality constraint on movement, which bans movement which is too short. Subject extraction is often distinguished due to the high canonical position of subjects in their clauses (e.g. Spec,TP), making their movement to the clause edge (e.g. Spec,CP) uniquely in danger of violating the Spec-to-Spec Anti-Locality constraint (Erlewine 2016). Concretely, three subject extraction asymmetry behaviors are discussed and analyzed: complementizer-trace effects, subject anti-agreement effects, and bans on subject resumption, including the so-called Highest Subject Restriction. In each case, we observe that the special behavior associated with subject extraction (a) can be obviated by increasing the distance of movement, (b) also applies to exceptionally high non-subjects, and (c) does not correlate with other subjecthood properties. These facts are straightforwardly explained by the anti-locality-based approach to these asymmetries, but are challenging for alternative accounts.

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Tonal reflexes of movement in Asante Twi

Korsah

Murphy

2019

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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Quirks of subject (non-)extraction in Igbo

Cited by 5 publications

References 55 publications

Resumption in Igbo: Two types of resumptives, complex phi-mismatches, and dynamic deletion domains

Resumption in Igbo: Two types of resumptives, complex phi-mismatches, and dynamic deletion domains

Anti-locality and subject extraction

Tonal reflexes of movement in Asante Twi

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