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A dynamic perspective on left-right asymmetries

CLLD and Clitic doubling in Greek
  • Eleni Gregoromichelaki
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Rightward Movement in a Comparative Perspective
This chapter is in the book Rightward Movement in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Various intepretational effects and structural restrictions can be observed in the phenomenon of the duplication of arguments (doubling) by clitics in lan­guages like Modern Greek. The fact that some of these restrictions operate apparently differentially depending on whether the doubled argument occurs in the left or the right periphery have led to the postulation of two supposedly dis­tinct phenomena: CLLD (Clitic Left Dislocation: left periphery, unbounded) vs. Clitic Doubling (ClD: right periphery, clause bound). We examine these left-right asymmetries from the perspective of Dynamic Syntax (DS), a grammar formal­ism which reflects directly the dynamics of incrementally mapping a string of words to a semantic representation. Because in DS no separate level of syn­tactic representation is assumed, many standard structural constraints emerge as epiphenomenal and rather attributable to the timing of the construction process and its interaction with the context of utterance. For example, the Right Roof Constraint, a phenomenon which appears to require proliferation of otherwise unmotivated functional projections with attendant leftward movement (Kayne 1994), emerges in DS as an immediate consequence of the fact that interpretational processes at early stages may assign underspecified structure/content with delayed construal while interpretational processes at the closing stages may not (as a result of the independently motivated compositionality requirement). In a similar vein, the current account of left-right asymmetries in the occurrence of clitics exploits the DS mechanisms to derive a non-ambiguity account of clitics in all their occurrences, with variation explicable from the availability of multi­ple strategies interacting in the construction of semantic structure: the range of effects results from the distinct stages during processing when the clitic or the doubled DP make their contribution to the resulting representation. Besides aim­ing at a reduction in explanatory levels of representation, the account also aims to demonstrate the benefits of including, as part of the grammar, the parsing dy­namics of how context-dependent interpretations are built up incrementally.

Abstract

Various intepretational effects and structural restrictions can be observed in the phenomenon of the duplication of arguments (doubling) by clitics in lan­guages like Modern Greek. The fact that some of these restrictions operate apparently differentially depending on whether the doubled argument occurs in the left or the right periphery have led to the postulation of two supposedly dis­tinct phenomena: CLLD (Clitic Left Dislocation: left periphery, unbounded) vs. Clitic Doubling (ClD: right periphery, clause bound). We examine these left-right asymmetries from the perspective of Dynamic Syntax (DS), a grammar formal­ism which reflects directly the dynamics of incrementally mapping a string of words to a semantic representation. Because in DS no separate level of syn­tactic representation is assumed, many standard structural constraints emerge as epiphenomenal and rather attributable to the timing of the construction process and its interaction with the context of utterance. For example, the Right Roof Constraint, a phenomenon which appears to require proliferation of otherwise unmotivated functional projections with attendant leftward movement (Kayne 1994), emerges in DS as an immediate consequence of the fact that interpretational processes at early stages may assign underspecified structure/content with delayed construal while interpretational processes at the closing stages may not (as a result of the independently motivated compositionality requirement). In a similar vein, the current account of left-right asymmetries in the occurrence of clitics exploits the DS mechanisms to derive a non-ambiguity account of clitics in all their occurrences, with variation explicable from the availability of multi­ple strategies interacting in the construction of semantic structure: the range of effects results from the distinct stages during processing when the clitic or the doubled DP make their contribution to the resulting representation. Besides aim­ing at a reduction in explanatory levels of representation, the account also aims to demonstrate the benefits of including, as part of the grammar, the parsing dy­namics of how context-dependent interpretations are built up incrementally.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction by the editors 1
  4. Part I. Empirical perspective
  5. Constraints on intra- and extraposition 63
  6. Subclausal locality constraints on relative clause extraposition 99
  7. Constraints on relative clause extraposition in English 145
  8. Part II. The Minimalist Perspective
  9. Rightward movement, EPP and specifiers 175
  10. Neglected cases of rightward movement 211
  11. Rightward movement from a different perspective 243
  12. Cumulative rightward processes 281
  13. Part III. Other Theoretical Perspectives
  14. A dynamic perspective on left-right asymmetries 321
  15. On the locality of complement clause and relative clause extraposition 369
  16. Part IV. The Prosodic Perspective
  17. Extraposition of defocused and light PPs in English 399
  18. Prosodic constraints on extraposition in German 439
  19. Index 473
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.200.12gre

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction by the editors 1
  4. Part I. Empirical perspective
  5. Constraints on intra- and extraposition 63
  6. Subclausal locality constraints on relative clause extraposition 99
  7. Constraints on relative clause extraposition in English 145
  8. Part II. The Minimalist Perspective
  9. Rightward movement, EPP and specifiers 175
  10. Neglected cases of rightward movement 211
  11. Rightward movement from a different perspective 243
  12. Cumulative rightward processes 281
  13. Part III. Other Theoretical Perspectives
  14. A dynamic perspective on left-right asymmetries 321
  15. On the locality of complement clause and relative clause extraposition 369
  16. Part IV. The Prosodic Perspective
  17. Extraposition of defocused and light PPs in English 399
  18. Prosodic constraints on extraposition in German 439
  19. Index 473
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