Beyond Coherence: The syntax of opacity in German (Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today)

219 Pages·2007·1.58 MB·English

by  Vera Lee-Schoenfeld

Beyond Coherence
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Rijksuniversiteit Arizona State University
Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Cedric Boeckx Christer Platzack
Harvard University University of Lund
Guglielmo Cinque Ian Roberts
University of Venice Cambridge University
Günther Grewendorf Lisa deMena Travis
J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Lille, France University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Volume 114
Beyond Coherence. The syntax of opacity in German
Vera Lee-Schoenfeld
Beyond Coherence
The syntax of opacity in German
Vera Lee-Schoenfeld
Swarthmore College
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
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American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee-Schoenfeld, Vera.
Beyond coherence : the syntax of opacity in German / Vera Lee-Schoenfeld.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 114)
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of California, Santa
Cruz, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. German language--Syntax. 2. German language--Infinitival constructions. 3. German
language--Possessives. I. Title.
PF3369.L46 2007
435--dc22 2007035180
isbn 978 90 272 3378 3 (Hb; alk. paper)
© 2007 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
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Table of Contents

Preface ...................................................................................................viii
Introduction..............................................................................................1
Part I: Reduced Infinitive Constructions....................................5
Chapter 1: Coherence and Restructuring................................................6
1.1 (Non)finite complementation and transparency..............................6
1.1.1 The phenomenon..............................................................6
1.1.2 Accounting for the phenomenon.......................................8
1.2 Coherence, non-coherence, and a “third” construction.................10
1.2.1 Two major verb classes..................................................10
1.2.2 Coherence tests..............................................................11
1.2.3 Subdivisions in the class of coherent verbs.....................19
1.3 A typology of (non-)restructuring................................................24
1.3.1 Four degrees of (non-)restructuring................................24
1.3.2 AcI: A hybrid category...................................................27
1.3.3 Restructuring, possessor datives, and binding.................29
Part II: The Possessor Dative Construction .............................32
Chapter 2: German Possessor Datives: Raised And Affected...............33
2.1 Introduction.................................................................................33
2.1.1 External Possession........................................................33
2.1.2 The dual role of possessor datives..................................34
2.2 Scope of the chapter.....................................................................35
2.2.1 Possessor datives............................................................35
2.2.2 Non-possessor datives....................................................38
2.2.3 Solving the classic puzzle...............................................39
2.3 Possessor raising..........................................................................42
2.3.1 Obligatory possessor interpretation.................................42
2.3.2 C-command restriction...................................................45
2.3.3 Locality..........................................................................46
2.3.4 Landau’s possessor raising account................................51
2.3.5 Arguments against control and binding...........................54
2.4 Possessor datives in a framework of dynamic structure-building..60
2.4.1 The facts: Hebrew versus German..................................60
2.4.2 Possessor datives as both possessed and affected............63
2.4.3 Arguments against a low applicative account..................68
2.4.4 Double θ-assignment......................................................74
2.5 Residual issues.............................................................................80
2.6 Conclusion...................................................................................85
vi BEYOND COHERENCE

Chapter 3: Possessor Raising as Coherence Diagnostic........................87
3.1 Scrambling and long passive as diagnostics for infinitival
clause size....................................................................................88
3.1.1 Scrambling.....................................................................89
3.1.2 Long passive..................................................................92
3.1.3 Need for a new diagnostic..............................................94
3.2 Possessor datives: A more reliable probe.....................................96
3.2.1 NR predicates.................................................................97
3.2.2 RNR and LR predicates..................................................98
3.2.3 FR predicates...............................................................105
3.3 Possessor datives in the context of AcIs.....................................106
3.3.1 Transitive and unergative versus unaccusative AcIs......107
3.3.2 The position of affectee vPs..........................................108
3.3.3 From the PDC to binding to phases..............................112
Part III: Coherence By Phase..................................................114
Chapter 4: A Phase-Based Binding Account
of (Non-)Complementarity in German....................................115
4.1 Introduction...............................................................................116
4.1.1 AcIs: A context for (non-)complementarity..................116
4.1.2 Scope of the chapter.....................................................118
4.2 Previous accounts......................................................................121
4.2.1 Reis 1973, 1976 and Haider 1985.................................121
4.2.2 Frey 1993.....................................................................123
4.2.3 Reconsidering the facts.................................................129
4.3 Binding domains and agentivity.................................................136
4.3.1 A phrase-structural analysis of unaccusativity..............136
4.3.2 An extension to the nominal domain.............................141
4.4 Taking the analysis to the next phase.........................................144
4.4.1 Unifying vP and DP......................................................144
4.4.2 Reflexive raising..........................................................145
4.4.3 Binding by phase..........................................................148
4.4.4 Why PP-embedded reflexives are different...................151
4.4.5 PP-phases.....................................................................153
4.5 Conclusion.................................................................................158
Chapter 5: Binding, Possessor Datives, and Phasehood......................160
5.1 Parallels between binding and possessor datives as probes for
transparency...............................................................................161
5.2 The phase as the key to opacity effects.......................................166
5.2.1 Agentive versus “verbalizer” vPs..................................167
5.2.2 Affectee vPs.................................................................171
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

5.2.3 DPs, PPs, and CPs........................................................172
5.2.4 ‘Double-layer’ DPs revisited........................................174
5.2.5 Beyond coherence: A unified account...........................178
Appendix A...........................................................................................179
Appendix B............................................................................................181
Bibliography..........................................................................................192
Name Index...........................................................................................201
Subject Index........................................................................................203
Preface

I completed my dissertation at UC Santa Cruz in 2005, and this book presents
that work essentially unchanged. I do, however, thank an anonymous Lin-
guistik Aktuell reviewer whose comments raised a few important issues that led
me to add some further discussion in various places and who, despite some
remaining concerns about possessor raising and my unifying phase-based
analysis, found this work worth publishing.
A big thank you goes to my dissertation committee: Judith Aissen and
Jim McCloskey (the co-chairs), Jorge Hankamer, and Sandy Chung. As I say
in the Acknowledgements of the dissertation, their guidance was invaluable
and contributed immensely to the successful completion of the three parts of
this book, which bring together the three strands of research I have been
working on since my syntax qualifying paper. Thanks also to everyone else I
mention in the Acknowledgements of the dissertation, especially to Paul for his
expertise and patience during the last stage of the typesetting process.
Parts of chapter 1 of the book, on coherence, the study of reduced
infintive constructions, build directly on Susi Wurmbrand’s (2001) work on re-
structuring. The research that ultimately led to chapters 2, 3, and 4, on the
possessor dative construction and binding in AcI-constructions, resulted in
several conference presentations and two journal articles. My thanks especial-
ly to the participants of the Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshops in Dur-
ham and New York (CGSW 18 and 19) and the 2004 Berkeley Germanic Lin-
guistic Roundtable. My possessor raising analysis benefited greatly from the
feedback of Susi Wurmbrand and anonymous reviewers for the Journal of
Com-parative Germanic Linguistics, and my phase-based binding account im-
proved considerably after the prompt and constructive criticism it got from
Mark Louden and anonymous reviewers for the Journal of Germanic Lin-
guistics.
Finally, many thanks to Werner Abraham, Elly van Gelderen, Kees
Vaes, and Patricia Leplae, who were remarkably uncomplicated and friendly
editors to work with.
Introduction

The following chapters deal with one of the central concerns of syntactic
theory since Ross (1967): How local is syntax and what are the measures of
syntactic locality? These questions lie at the core, for example, of both the
theory of movement and the theory of binding. A constant theme has been the
issue of whether or not movement and anaphoric relations are governed by a
unified concept of locality. I argue here that they are.
On an empirical level, I bring together and present the results of three
(partly) independent strands of research on German: (i) the study of reduced
infinitive constructions, starting with Bech’s (1955/57) classic work on
‘coherence’ versus ‘non-coherence’ in German, (ii) the ‘possessor dative con-
struction’ (PDC), with a dative nominal playing the role of both possessor and
affectee, and (iii) binding, the conditions under which reflexive and non-re-
flexive pronouns may occur. One of the principal results of this work is that
there is a single determinant of locality for these three apparently disparate
phenomena.
The initial goal is to show how possessor datives and binding bear on
the clause structure of various types of infinitival structures, primarily ‘control’
and ‘Accusativus cum Infinitivo’ constructions. Both the PDC and binding are
phenomena involving relations between two structural positions, and both are
sensitive to the “size” (in the sense of ‘internal complexity’) of intervening
material. Exploiting this sensitivity, I propose that possessor datives and
binding can serve as probes for infinitival clause size. Building on Wurmbrand
(2001), I provide new evidence for a distinction between infinitival com-
plements that is more fine-grained than, and thus goes beyond, Bech’s original
and traditionally assumed binary distinction between coherence and non-co-
herence.
These results provide the foundation for addressing two larger issues:
the typology of clause size and what makes a given phrase-type transparent
(constructed coherently) or opaque (constructed non-coherently) to gram-
matical interactions with elements beyond its boundaries. The category of
clauses that are ‘satzwertig’ (literally “of sentence-value”) is uniquely im-
portant to an understanding of language, since that is the category through
which we accomplish core speech acts like the assertion of what is true. It is
the category which, since Aristotle, has been taken to express the core