The EPP Materialized First, Agree Later: Wh-Questions, Subjects and Mo'also'-Phrases ∗

Abstract

In Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2000, 2001), movement is driven by Agree and the EPP feature on a head, e.g., C for a wh-word and T for a subject. Under such a framework, little can be said about non-moved items that may still Agree with a relevant head; e.g., wh-in-situ’s. Furthermore, it misses the fact that a language without overt wh-movement typically marks the status of question at head C and/or with a particular intonation pattern. For example, Japanese makes use of the question particle ka at C and the rising intonation pattern. Taking this as a significant generalization, we will propose a system where the EPP is responsible for giving rise to an item at Spec as well as for marking Head overtly, i.e., THE EPP should be MATERIALIZED. Agree takes over from there, taking care of both moved and non-moved items; i.e., AGREE comes in LATER. This system makes interesting predictions concerning how the EPP of T is materialized in Japanese. Based on the data on Mo‘also’-phrases presented in Hasegawa (1991, 1994), we will argue that a Mo-phrase takes up TP-Spec as a realization of the EPP, but a nominative Ga-phrase may not, which may be at CP-Spec or vP-Spec. Some speculations are made with respect to the EPP on T in English and the C system in general.

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