Nominal subextractions and the structure of NPs in Serbian and English

Abstract

The thesis argues for a remnant movement analysis of constructions referred to \nin the literature as Left Branch Extractions (LBE). The best known cases of LBE, \n\nor what I term split-XPs, are found in Slavic languages, which allow all prenominal \n\nconstituents to be separated from the noun they modify. I argue that the derivation \n\nof these constructions proceeds in two steps. First, the non-focused material \n\nis vacated out of the DP/PP in order to restrict the focus domain to the prenominal \n\nmodifier. Subsequently, the remnant XP is fronted to the specifier of focus \n\nphrase. The remnant movement analysis easily tackles the problem of apparent \n\nnon-constituent movement in split PPs, as well as accounts for the preservation of \n\nordering restrictions within the DP and the observation that both parts of the split \n\nmust occupy derived positions. On the theoretical side, I argue that not all movement \n\noperations can be characterized in terms of Attract feature, as standardly \n\nassumed within the Minimalist framework. In particular, I assume that the first \n\nmovement step is brought about by the properties of the source position, rather \n\nthan by any formal requirement of the target, and correlate this with the ability \n\nof the first movement operation to circumvent islands. Finally, I show that crosslinguistic \n\nvariation regarding the possibility of extracting left branch constituents \n\ncannot be reduced to the presence vs absence of a determiner phrase, as suggested \n\nin previous analyses.Interestingly, Bulgarian which differs from other Slavic languages \n\nin having overt articles, seems to allow the constructions in question, thus \n\nsuggesting that the locus of parametric variation must be sought in properties other \n\nthan the categorial status of noun phrases.

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