Principles and Parameters in a VSO Language: A Case Study in Welsh

216 Pages·2005·9.989 MB·

by  Ian G. Roberts

Principles and Parameters
in a VSO Language
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Ian G. Roberts
Principles and Parameters
in a VSO Language
A Case Study in Welsh
Ian G. Roberts
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2005
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Ian G.
Principles and parameters in a VSO language: a case study in Welsh /
Ian G. Roberts
p. cm. — (Oxford studies in comparative syntax)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-516821-6; 0-19-516822-4 (pbk.)
1. Welsh language—Syntax. 2. Welsh language—Grammar, Generative.
I. Title. II. Series.
PB2171.R63 2004
491.6'65—dc21 2003047109
246897531
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
T
his book, like a much more groundbreaking work on Welsh, has a history. I
began it in February 1996, while still at the University of Wales, Bangor. Later
that year I put it aside for a temporary pause, which eventually lasted three years.
I took it up again on my arrival for a sabbatical semester at the University of Siena
in October 1999. Most of 2000 was taken up by a further pause, and this book was
completed only after another move, this time to Cambridge in the autumn of 2000.
I would like to thank the University of Wales, Bangor, and the University of Stuttgart
for providing me with sabbatical leave in Spring 1996 and Winter 1999-2000,
respectively, and I would like to thank the University of Siena for providing me
with academic hospitality in 1999-2000.
My thanks are due to many people. My former colleagues at Bangor, particularly
Bob Borsley and Anna Roussou for the initial stimulus to write this book and
many helpful and insightful comments and criticisms over the years; Luigi Rizzi
and Adriana Belletti for all kinds of hospitality in Siena; audiences in numerous
places who have heard parts of this material, particularly the ongoing Welsh Syntax
Seminar series, now held annually at the beautiful Plas Gregynog, and Cecilia
Poletto and Paola Beninca at the University of Padua; my long-suffering informants
Susan Clack, Mari-Eluned Williams, Emyr Davies, Bob Morris-Jones, Mair Parry,
and Mari Jones (for Welsh) and Janig Stephens (for Breton); the students in my
Hauptseminar on Celtic Syntax at the University of Stuttgart in Summer 1999; the
members of the East Anglian Welsh Syntax Circle; three anonymous and very
punctilious reviewers at Oxford University Press; and my wife, Lucia.
vi Principles and Parameters in a VSO Language
Last, I'd like to thank the wider community of Celtic linguists for living up to
various positive ethnic stereotypes when it conies to the noble pastimes of drinking
and telling tall tales. I hope that what follows is not too tall a tale for them to digest
soberly.
Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 1: The Analysis of VSO Languages 7
1.1 The Subject Leaves VP 9
1.2 Against Generalized V-to-C 19
1.3 Conclusion 42
Chapter 2: Case, Agreement, and Mutation 47
2.1 TheV-Feature 48
2.2 DP-Licensing and Case 65
2.3 The Syntax of Direct Object Mutation 69
2.4 Conclusion 85
Chapter 3: Genitive Case, Word Order in DP, and Objects
of Non-Finite Verbs 87
3.1 Evidence for N-Movement in Welsh 88
3.2 Verbal Nouns and Their Complements 101
3.3 Conclusion 118
Chapter 4: The C-System and the Extended Projection Principle 119
4.1 Welsh Particles 120
4.2 Breton 124
5.3 Second Position and the EPP 135
viii Principles and Parameters in a VSO Language
4.4 Conclusion 141
Chapter 5: Head-Movement and EPP-Features 143
5.1 Head-Movement 143
5.2 A Formal Characterization of EPP-Effects 151
5.3 Conclusion 154
Notes 157
References 187
Index 199
Principles and Parameters
in a VSO Language