This article addresses wh-displacement and wh-expletive constructions in Hindi-Urdu, accounting for parametric variation in terms of the properties of the phase-defining heads C and v. This analysis provides an understanding of a systematic set of contrasts between Kashmiri and Hindi-Urdu that suggests that crosslinguistic variation may follow from properties of specifically the phase-defining functional heads. It is then possible to construct a unified account of the various strategies of forming long-distance wh-dependencies in the two languages.
In the most recent account of rightward displacement in Hindi-Urdu, Bhatt and Dayal (2007) claim that all postverbal constituents are derived via rightward movement of a remnant VP. In this article, I argue that the remnant-VP approach does not allow us to make distinctions between the positioning requirements of DPs and CPs. I propose an account of rightward scrambling (following Mahajan 1988 ) that captures the correlation in Hindi-Urdu between scope and linear order, and I claim that finite complement CPs do not undergo scrambling, but are instead obligatorily aligned to the right edge of their containing clause at the level of PF.
The discourse function of the syntactic construction left dislocation in English has received significant attention. Prior research has identified at least three distinct form-function correlations underlying left dislocation. This paper examines left dislocation tokens from a corpus of spoken English recorded in South Philadelphia. From this emerges a fourth type of left dislocation not previously identified. We define this variety of left dislocation, termed the Unexpected Subject type, via a Centering Theory analysis of the surrounding discourse. This finding adds even greater diversity to the potential discourse functions underlying the left dislocation construction, and thus lends important support to the claim that the association between syntactic form and discourse function is arbitrary. Future research utilizing much larger corpora will not only allow us to hone the definition of the Unexpected Subject type, but may also reveal that there are indeed more discourse functions of the left dislocation construction that have not been identified. #
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