Coordination and linear order

Abstract

This thesis investigates the syntax of coordination, focusing on three topics: structure, agreement, and extraction. I show that asymmetries between conjuncts in selection, agreement, binding, weak crossover, and reconstruction are all due to linear order. I propose a binary branching structure for coordination in which the coordinator does not project a special phrase, but adjoins to each conjunct. This coordinator triggers a special sort of labeling, which I call Set Label. Set Label makes the label of the entire phrase the union of the labels of the conjuncts. Set Label captures agreement resolution in coordination and, combined with left-to-right structure building, it also captures cases of agreement with a single conjunct and mismatches in syntactic category. Recent analyses of closest conjunct agreement have proposed that the linear effects observed in that phenomenon are due to agreement being resolved not in the syntax but at phonological spellout. Similar linear effects with selection, binding, crossover, and reconstruction cannot be captured in this way and require a syntactic analysis. The uniform analysis that I propose for all of these effects also captures closest conjunct agreement in the syntax. Finally, the dissertation also contributes to the question of what restricts extraction from a coordinate structure. I adopt and defend previous analyses according to which the Coordinate Structure Constraint should be reduced to two constraints: (i) a constraint on pronunciation which bans leaving a conjunct unpronounced; and (ii) a semantic parallelism constraint. My investigation of linear asymmetries in across-the-board movement removes arguments for treating multiple gaps in a disparate manner, and I accordingly suggest a uniform analysis for multiple gaps in across-the-board movement. This dissertation contributes significantly to the debate on the status of linear order in syntax, arguing for a primary role for linear order in the syntax. It also highlights the idea that coordination is special, and requires a special mode of structure building.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 18 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.