The Syntax of Romanian

316 Pages·1993·9.452 MB·English

by  Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin

The Syntax of Romanian
Studies in Generative Grammar
Editors
Jan Köster
Henk van Riemsdijk
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
The Syntax of Romanian
Comparative Studies in Romance
by
Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 1994
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
The series Studies in Generative Grammar was formerly published by
Foris Publications Holland.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen,
The Syntax of Romanian : comparative studies in Romance /
Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin,
p. cm. — (Studies in generative grammar ; 40)
Originally presented as the author's thesis (These d'Etat).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3-11-013541-8 (cloth)
1. Romanian language — Syntax. 2. Romanian language—
Verb. 3. Romanian language—Grammar, Generative.
4. Romanian language—Grammar, Comparative—Romance.
5. Romance languages — Grammar, Comparative — Romanian.
6. Romance languages —Syntax. 7. Romance languages—Verb.
8. Romance languages — Grammar, Generative.
I. Title. II. Series.
PC725.D63 1993
459'.5 —dc20 93-5554
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen:
The syntax of Romanian : comparative studies in romance / by Carmen
Dobrovie-Sorin. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1993
(Studies in generative grammar ; 40)
ISBN 3-11-013541-8
NE: GT
© Copyright 1993 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printing: Gericke GmbH, Berlin. Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin
Printed in Germany.
Ce serait entreprendre le r£cit d'un cauchemar que de vous raconter par le menu
l'histoire de mes relations avec cet idiome d'emprunt [le frangais], avec tous ces
mots pensis et repens£s, affinis, subtils jusqu'ä l'inexistence, courbis sous les
exactions de la nuance, inexpressifs pour avoir tout exprimö, effrayants de
prdcision, chargis de fatigue et de pudeur, discrets jusque dans la vulgarity [...]
plus aucune trace de terre, de sang, d'äme en eux. Une syntaxe d'une raideur,
d'une dignity cadavirique les enserre et leur assigne une place d'ou Dieu meme ne
pourrait les ddloger. [...] sans quoi jamais je n'eusse abandonnd la notre [le
roumain], dont il m'arrive de regretter l'odeur de fraicheur et de pourriture, le
mölange de soleil et de bouse, la laideur nostalgique, le superbe d6braillement
Ε. M. Cioran, Histoire et Utopie

Preface
This book started out as a translation of my Thfese d'Etat, but it has become a
quite different piece of work. Chapters 1 through 4, as well as chapter 7 are entirely
new. The central ideas of chapters 5 and 6 go back to my dissertation, but have
been revised in essential ways. Chapter 6 is reprinted from Linguistic Inquiry
(1990, 3) without any change in content; because of technical difficulties, the
numbering of examples differs from the version in Linguistic Inquiry, but
everything else is identical.
During the four years I spent writing this book, I greatly benefited from
opportunities to present my ideas to other people. Preliminary versions of the whole
book were presented in various talks in Paris, in a research course at Stony Brook
(1992) and in talks given at the University of Bucarest and the Romanian Academy
of Sciences. These visits were made possible by financial support from the CNRS.
During my stays in Bucarest (1990-1992), Stony Brook and ΜΓΓ (1991-1992),
discussions with Noam Chomsky, Pusi Cornilescu, Dan Finer, Irene Heim, Jim
Higginbotham, Peter Ludlow, Richard Larson, Eric Reuland and Anna Szabolcsi,
were especially fruitful. The central idea of Chapter 7 was first presented at the LF
Conference in Tilburg (1988), and in a more refined form in Le Deuxifeme Congrös
des Langues Romanes (Groningen 1992), GLOW 1992 (Lisbon), and talks given
in MIT, Stony Brook and New Jersey (1992). Parts of chapter 5 were presented in
Going Romance (Utrecht 1991) and Linguistica Romena Oggi (Venice 1992).
Chapters 1 and 2 were presented at CUNY. I am extremely grateful to the
audiences at these events, notably Guglielmo Cinque, Giuliana Giusti, Ruohmei
Hsieh, Richie Kayne, Tony Kroch, Pino Longobardi, Ken Safir and Eriko Sato-
Zhu for challenging questions and insightful criticism.
Several people gave me helpful comments on preliminary drafts of the
manuscript. Among them, I am especially indebted to Anna Cardinaletti, Dan Finer,
Daniele Godard, Sandu Grosu, Maria Teresa Guasti, Jacqueline Guiron, Sarah
Kennelly, Richard Larson, Peter Ludlow, Lea Nash, Hans Obenauer, Georges
Rebuschi, Henk van Riemsdijk, Maria-Luisa Rivero, Isabelle Simatos and Elisabeth
Villalta, Anne Zribi-Hertz. The acknowledgments for Chapter 6 are reproduced
with it. Special thanks go to Antoine Culioli, Richard Kayne and Jean Claude
Milner for having shown me how to become a linguist and to Irene Heim and Anna
Szabolcsi for their invaluable help with Chapter 7 .
The manuscript was more or less completed in September 1990, and circulated
in preliminary versions since then. In preparing the final text, I received editorial
assistance from Mouton de Gruyter Publishers, and technical assistance from the
staff of the Linguistics Department of the University of Paris 7. Finally, I would
like to thank Sarah Kennelly and Kristin Stromberg for having tried to improve the
style of my English and Elisabeth Villalta for having compiled the Index.

Table of Contents IX
Table of Contents
Preface VII
Introduction XIII
1. Auxiliaries and the structure of IP constituents 1
1.1. Auxiliary constructions 2
1. 1. 1. Auxiliaries and tense features 5
1. 1.2. Auxiliaries and generalized V-raising 6
1. 1. 3. "V-second" constructions (subject-Aux/V inversion; Aux-to-Comp) 12
1. 1. 4. Biclausal auxiliary structures (I) 14
Conclusions 15
1. 2. The structure of auxiliary constructions 15
1. 2. 1. Biclausal auxiliary structures (Π) 15
1. 2. 2. Raising constructions 18
1. 2. 3. Monoclausal auxiliary structures 20
Conclusions 23
1. 3. Auxiliaries, bare infinitives and the distribution of clitics 24
1. 3. 1. Auxiliaries and bare infinitives 24
1. 3. 2. Bare infinitives and clitic adverbs 26
1. 4. Auxiliary structures and Long Head Movement 27
1.4. 1 Auxiliary inversion and the ECP 29
1. 4. 2. On the absence of auxiliary inversion 31
1. 4. 3. Inverted conjugations and relativized minimality 33
1. 4. 4. Modals 35
1. 5. The licensing of verbs, auxiliaries and types of IP constituents 36
1. 5. 1. IP structvfre and auxiliaries 37
1. 5. 2. Auxiliary configurations and the Tense filter 38
1.5.3. The licensing of verbs embedded under modals 39
1.5. 4. "Biclausal" tenses 40
1. 5. 5. Towards a definition of auxiliaries 40
1.6. The perfect auxiliary fi 'be' 41
Conclusions 45
Appendix 47
2. Clitic Placement and the rule of Move I-to-C 49
2. 1. Cliticization in Romance languages 49
2. 1. 1 Clitic Placement as adjunction to Infi 50
2. 1.2. Clitic Placement as adjunction to IP 53
2. 1. 3. Two instances of Move Infl-to-Comp: V-second and V-preposing 55
2. 1. 4. The ECP and Merging 57
2. 1. 5. The adjacency condition on Merging 59
Conclusions 61
X The Syntax of Romanian
2. 2. Romanian clitics 62
2. 2. 1. Deriving linear order from hierarchical structure 63
2. 2. 2. A definition of clitics 65
2. 3. The rule of V-preposing and clitic Merging 66
2. 3. 1. Adverbial clitics and V-preposing 66
2.3.2. Move I lands in Comp 67
2. 3. 3. Negation 68
2. 3. 4. Proclisis, enclisis and Merging 70
Conclusions 72
2. 4. Move I-to-C (V-preposing) in auxiliary structures 72
2. 4. 1. The distribution of clitics in auxiliary structures 73
2. 4. 2. Auxiliary inversion and endoclitic pronouns 78
Conclusions . 79
Appendix: A diachronic note: early Romance inverted conjugations 80
3. The constituent structure of infinitives and subjunctives 82
3. 1. The constituent structure of infinitival clauses 82
3. 1. 1. The categorial status of a 82
3. 1.2. The structure of infinitival IP constituents 87
3. 1. 3. Control structures 91
3. 2. The constituent structure of subjunctive clauses 93
3. 2. 1. The categorial status of sä 93
3. 2. 2. The structure of subjunctive IP constituents 98
3. 2. 3. On certain differences between subjunctives and indicatives 104
3. 2. 4. On the difference between CP and IP 106
3. 2. 5. The doubly filled Comp filter and predication 107
3. 2. 6. Comp and left dislocated elements 109
4. Subject anaphors in subjunctive clauses 112
4. 1. The data: control, subject raising and obviation 112
4. 2. PRO and control structures 114
4. 3. On the contextual identification of anaphors 115
4. 4. Subject raising 118
4. 5. Obviation 120
4. 6. The constituent structure of Romanian subjunctives 121
4. 7. The governing category of the subject of Romanian subjunctives 122
4. 8. The null subject of Romanian infinitives 126
Conclusions 126
5. Copula passives and middle/passive se with (in)transitives 128
Introduction 128
5. 1. Passives with (in)transitives 129
5. 1. 1. The data 129