TY - JOUR
T1 - A unified theory of 'standard' and 'transparent' free relatives
AU - Grosu, Alexander
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper is based on research supported by the Israel Science Foundation of the Israel Academy of Sciences under grants 782/00-01 and 800/01-02. A shorter and substantively different earlier version that addresses only some of the issues discussed in this article will appear in the proceedings of the Antwerp conference
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - This paper puts forward a unified theory of 'standard' and 'transparent' free relatives, and thus departs from earlier analyses of the latter, which have consistently viewed them as radically different 'constructions.' It is argued, partly on the basis of strengthened and refined old arguments and partly on the basis of novel ones, that the two kinds of free relatives are unified by the following core of properties: (i) they are complex XPs, consisting of an overt CP and a null head (with internal structure), (ii) they are multi-categorial, and (iii) their semantic interpretation involves the application of a uniqueness operator to a set obtained by abstraction. The special effects associated with transparent free relatives result from the following combination of factors (which may be encountered separately, in which case they do not induce transparency effects): (a) the wh-element in [Spec, CP] binds the subject of a small clause, (b) the small clause is of the equative-specificational type, (c) abstraction at the CP level applies to an unrestricted property variable, and (d) the wh-element is syntactically and semantically underspecified. The cumulative effect of these factors is that the small-clause predicate is perceived as, and in certain ways also functions as, a syntactic and semantic 'nucleus' of the complex XP and thus exhibits head-like properties.
AB - This paper puts forward a unified theory of 'standard' and 'transparent' free relatives, and thus departs from earlier analyses of the latter, which have consistently viewed them as radically different 'constructions.' It is argued, partly on the basis of strengthened and refined old arguments and partly on the basis of novel ones, that the two kinds of free relatives are unified by the following core of properties: (i) they are complex XPs, consisting of an overt CP and a null head (with internal structure), (ii) they are multi-categorial, and (iii) their semantic interpretation involves the application of a uniqueness operator to a set obtained by abstraction. The special effects associated with transparent free relatives result from the following combination of factors (which may be encountered separately, in which case they do not induce transparency effects): (a) the wh-element in [Spec, CP] binds the subject of a small clause, (b) the small clause is of the equative-specificational type, (c) abstraction at the CP level applies to an unrestricted property variable, and (d) the wh-element is syntactically and semantically underspecified. The cumulative effect of these factors is that the small-clause predicate is perceived as, and in certain ways also functions as, a syntactic and semantic 'nucleus' of the complex XP and thus exhibits head-like properties.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4043156968&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1023387128941
DO - 10.1023/A:1023387128941
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AN - SCOPUS:4043156968
SN - 0167-806X
VL - 21
SP - 247
EP - 331
JO - Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
JF - Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
IS - 2
ER -