Appositive sentences and the structure(s) of coordination
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Gabriela Matos
Abstract
Coordination is not a unitary phenomenon: as far as binding and scope of external elements are concerned, appositive coordinate sentences may differ from their nonappositive integrated counterparts in the same way as appositive relatives differ from restrictive relatives, suggesting that different configurations are involved in appositive vs. non-appositive sentences. The Set-Merge (Kayne 1994) and Pair Merge (Munn 1992) proposals for dealing with coordination, although relevant, are not enough to distinguish appositive from non-appositive sentences. The crucial distinguishing property of appositives is their parenthetical status: they are adjuncts affected by a feature specifying their parenthetical nature. This allows the computational system, which operates bottom up and according to an Earliness Condition (Pesetsky 1989, Chomsky 2001), to interpret them as autonomous CP phases, to be transferred to the Interface components before the phases they are inserted in, thus preventing c-command effects from external elements at SEM.
Abstract
Coordination is not a unitary phenomenon: as far as binding and scope of external elements are concerned, appositive coordinate sentences may differ from their nonappositive integrated counterparts in the same way as appositive relatives differ from restrictive relatives, suggesting that different configurations are involved in appositive vs. non-appositive sentences. The Set-Merge (Kayne 1994) and Pair Merge (Munn 1992) proposals for dealing with coordination, although relevant, are not enough to distinguish appositive from non-appositive sentences. The crucial distinguishing property of appositives is their parenthetical status: they are adjuncts affected by a feature specifying their parenthetical nature. This allows the computational system, which operates bottom up and according to an Earliness Condition (Pesetsky 1989, Chomsky 2001), to interpret them as autonomous CP phases, to be transferred to the Interface components before the phases they are inserted in, thus preventing c-command effects from external elements at SEM.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- Unpronounced MUCH and the distribution of degree expressions in Spanish 1
- The status of the (supposed) expletive in Brazilian Portuguese existential clauses 17
- On the linearization of adjectives in Romanian 33
- Prepositionless genitive and N+N compounding in (Old) French and Italian 53
- Vowel elision in spoken Italian 73
- Acoustic correlates of phonological microvariations 89
- Romance lenition 111
- Main stress in Italian nonce nouns 127
- Negative concord as feature sharing 143
- Appositive sentences and the structure(s) of coordination 159
- Cleaving the interactions between sluicing and P-stranding 175
- Another look at wh-questions in Romance 199
- Index of subjects and terms 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- Unpronounced MUCH and the distribution of degree expressions in Spanish 1
- The status of the (supposed) expletive in Brazilian Portuguese existential clauses 17
- On the linearization of adjectives in Romanian 33
- Prepositionless genitive and N+N compounding in (Old) French and Italian 53
- Vowel elision in spoken Italian 73
- Acoustic correlates of phonological microvariations 89
- Romance lenition 111
- Main stress in Italian nonce nouns 127
- Negative concord as feature sharing 143
- Appositive sentences and the structure(s) of coordination 159
- Cleaving the interactions between sluicing and P-stranding 175
- Another look at wh-questions in Romance 199
- Index of subjects and terms 259
