Prepositional Phrases in Modern Standard Arabic: An Agree-Based Analysis

Prepositions, in Arabic traditional grammar literature, have been analyzed as Genitive Case assigners (Hasan, 1976; Sibaweihi, n.d.). This paper presents a phase-based analysis for prepositions (Ps) in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The analysis is built on Chomsky's (2005, 2008) Feature-Inheritance model of Agree. In this proposed analysis, Prepositional Phrases (PPs) in MSA are analyzed as phases, where a Probe-Goal relation is established between the prepositional Probe p-P and the DP in its searching domain (i.e., its complement). The outcome of this relation is valuation of the unvalued Case feature on this DP complement (i.e., Genitive Case), and a similar valuation to the unvalued phi-features (φ-fs) on the Probe p-P.

How Subjects and Possessors Can Obviate Phasehood

Recent proposals on phases claim that locality restrictions are obviated when the subject of a clausal phase has certain syntactic or discourse properties, suggesting that phasehood is acquired over the course of a derivation. I evaluate these claims with acceptability judgment experiments and argue that these phase-related locality effects can be derived from independently motivated principles, such as Feature Inheritance / Value–Transfer Simultaneity or the Principle of Minimal Compliance. I further point out similar effects with possessors and nominals in English, expanding the empirical domain. The nominal data constitute a novel argument for treating nominals as phases and strengthen the case for a general theory of phases that can account for these effects.

Multiple Feature Inheritance and the phase structure of the left periphery

Left-peripheral cartographic structures pose a challenge to phase theory models incorporating Feature Inheritance. This chapter effects a reconciliation of the different approaches that is based on the idea that Feature Inheritance can apply multiple times from the same phase head. A new model of Germanic Verb Second word order results, in which the displaced verb always occupies a phase head position, but the position itself may vary in different syntactic contexts. The model derives the strong Verb Second island effect in Germanic languages from phase theoretic principles. It is thereby shown that phase theory complements, rather than conflicts with, cartographic theory.

On embedded contrastive focus in Mandarin Chinese

This article investigates the previously undocumented focus-sensitiveness of certain scope-bearing expressions in Mandarin, and argues that the syntactic effects of this property should be accommodated by a structure that involves multiple dependencies and inherited dependencies. At the empirical side, it is shown that in Mandarin, certain quantificational expressions as well as typical focusing adverbs have to occur at positions where they (i) c‑command and (ii) be as close as possible to the contrastive foci that they associate with. The similarity to the typical association-with-focus configurations is captured under a unified Agree analysis that incorporated previous variable-adjunction-site analysis for focusing particles in German, while the additional dependencies in these structures are accounted for by multiple Agree and feature inheritance. This analysis is compared with some alternative approaches, which do not have equal empirical coverage or require more complex theoretical assumptions.

The Case of special qui

ABSTRACTFeature Inheritance (Richards 2007) entails that uninterpretable features originate on the phase head C or v* and are then transferred to the associated Agree head, T or V. In the present article, it is argued that the French que–qui alternation is the locus of a Case contrast, implying that nominative Case originates on the complementiser and only becomes associated with T as a consequence of feature transfer. Que–qui thus provides new, Case-based empirical support for the theory of Feature Inheritance. The article also suggests that the que–qui alternation has an important implication for Chomsky's recent application of dynamic antisymmetry, reinterpreted in terms of labelling, to the issue of subject extraction failure. Specifically, the alternation appears to indicate that Case-matching is required, in addition to phi-feature agreement, in order for extraction to be blocked by labelling.