In:Main Clause Phenomena: New Horizons
Edited by Lobke Aelbrecht, Liliane Haegeman and Rachel Nye
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 190] 2012
► pp. 135–158
Towards an interface definition of root phenomena*
Published online: 27 June 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.190.06cat
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.190.06cat
Root phenomena are those that typically occur in matrix clauses but are also allowed in a restricted set of embedded (“root-like”) clauses. This paper explores root phenomena with an interpretive import, and identifies three kinds of data that a purely syntactic approach cannot account for: the gradience in acceptability within clause types, the variable behaviour of peripheral adverbial clauses, and the existence of root phenomena in “fragments”. I argue that far from being noise in otherwise harmonious behaviour, these data are essential to consider for a full understanding of root phenomena, and that a strictly syntactic approach cannot capture them. An interface account is called for, where (most of) the burden of licensing befalls on the interpretive component.
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Lahousse, Karen
2022. Is focus a root phenomenon?. In When Data Challenges Theory [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 273], ► pp. 147 ff.
Jiménez Fernández, Ángel Luis
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