The Existence of Failed Agreement: Evidence from English List-Existentials

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper aims to propose a structure of English list-existentials, an understudied type of expletive there-constructions, and argue the existence of failed agreement, proposed by Preminger(2014), by using English list-existentials. These constructions exhibit the following properties: First, the copula is always realized as 3rd person singular forms regardless of whether post-verbal associates of there are singular or plural. Second, associates of there in constructions in question are not nominative but accusative. In order to capture these two properties shown in list-existentials, which are substantially different from indefinite existentials, I suggest that there are two types of unaccusative v, depending on whether it can assign case or not. v in list-existentials is the one with an ability to assign case, while v in indefinite existentials is not. Additionally, I argue that the associates in list-existentials, which have already received case from v, cannot be appropriate targets for Agree. Thus, uninterpretable φ-features on T always fail to be deleted. Nonetheless, list-existential sentences containing undeleted uninterpretable φ-features can be well-formed. This is impossible under Chomsky’s (2000) derivational time-bombs model, but possible under the failed agreement model, proposed by Preminger(2014). Given this, I conclude that failed agreement does exist in the grammar of English.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Pesetsky, D., "Zero Syntax: Experiencers and Cascades" MIT Press 1995

2 Hankamer, J., "There-insertion and the definiteness of deletion targets" Brown University 1973

3 Williams, E., "There-insertion" 14 : 131-153, 1984

4 Bowers, J., "The syntax of predication" 24 : 591-656, 1993

5 Hazout, I., "The syntax of existential constructions" 35 : 393-430, 2004

6 Deal, A. R., "The origin and content of expletives: Evidence from “selection”" 12 : 285-323, 2009

7 Chomsky, N., "The View from Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bormgerger" MIT Press 1-52, 1993

8 Keenan, E., "The Representation of (In)definiteness" MIT Press 286-317, 1987

9 Chomsky, N., "The Minimalist Program" MIT Press 1995

10 Bowers, J., "The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory" Blackwell 299-333, 2001

11 Belletti, A., "The Case of unaccusative" 19 : 1-34, 1988

12 Safir, K., "Syntactic Chains" Cambridge University Press 1985

13 Chomsky, N., "Step by Step: Essays on Minimalism in Honor of Howard Lasnik" MIT Press 89-155, 2000

14 Harley, H., "Possession and the double object construction" 2 : 29-68, 2002

15 Nevins, A., "Perspectives on Phases" MITWPL 287-310, 2004

16 Nevins, A., "Multiple agree with clitics: Person complementarity vs. omnivorous number" 29 : 939-971, 2011

17 Bobaljik, J., "Morphosyntax: The syntax of verbal inflection" MIT 1995

18 Levin, T., "Licensing without Case" MIT 2015

19 Chomsky, N., "Ken Hale: A Life in Language" MIT Press 2001

20 Barwise, J., "Generalized quantifier and natural language" 4 : 159-219, 1981

21 Milsark, G., "Existential sentences in English" MIT 1974

22 Lasnik, H., "Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory: Essays in Honor of Carlos Otero" Georgetown University Press 251-275, 1995

23 Bruening, B., "Ditransitive asymmetries and a theory of idiom formation" 41 : 519-562, 2010

24 Bruening, B., "Defects of defective intervention" 45 : 707-719, 2014

25 Lasnik, H., "Case and expletives revisited: On greed and other human failings" 26 : 615-633, 1995

26 Preminger, O., "Agreement and Its Failures" MIT Press 2014

27 Anderson, S. R., "A-Morphous Morphology" Cambridge University Press 1992

28 McNally, L., "A Semantics for the English Existential Construction" Garland Press 1997