<OT> New Posting: ROA-801

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 801-0106

Movement of Non-Constituents and Insensitivity to Islands in Ancient Greek

Brian Agbayani <bagbayan at csufresno.edu>
Chris Golston <chrisg at csufresno.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=801


Abstract:
We discuss apparent movement of non-constituents and insensitivit
y to islands in Ancient Greek.  Non-constituent sub-strings
apparently extract out of the complements of both lexical
and non-lexical heads.  This extraction may be extremely
local (XP-internal) or long-distance (CP-external).  This
phenomenon, hyperbaton, is often correlated with pragmatic
focus, though it is also driven by phonological requirements
of functional heads.  These facts are problematic for current
theory. To account for these data, we propose a model of
the syntax-phonology interface that involves proliferation
of information in the syntax and its minimal expression
by the phonology.  All complements are fully copied and
merged to the specs of the heads that license them.  Sentence
pronunciation is determined by ranked and violable constraints
on expression rather than by massive deletion.  This new
analysis yields a novel factorial typology for so-called
"non-configurational" languages.

Comments: 
Keywords: hyperbaton, Ancient Greek, discontinuous constituents, islands
Areas: Syntax-Phonology Interface
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=801