Restrictions on Long Passives in English and Brazilian Portuguese: A Phase-Based Account

Abstract

To explain seemingly idiosyncratic restrictions on long passivization of causative/perception verbs in Brazilian Portuguese and English, we show that: (i) long passives are blocked wherever the complement of a causative/perception verb constitutes a voiceP/progP phase; (ii) both TP complements and VP complements facilitate long passivization. To account for these patterns, we propose that Amovement can only cross a single phase head due to Chomsky’s (2001) (second) Phase Impenetrability Condition, and cannot use phase-edge escape hatches, but T’s EPP feature serves to feed A-movement into the matrix clause. In essence, successive cyclic A-movement is possible only where embedded T is present to facilitate it.