In some languages, distributive markers/quantifiers can attach to the argument that is being distributed (the distributive share), as opposed to the restrictor of the sentence (the distributive key). Researchers agree that distributive share markers can also distribute over events (and not only individuals), but disagree as to what these markers are semantically-universal distributive quantifiers or event plurality (pluractional) markers. In this paper, we experimentally probe spatial event distribution. On a universal quantification account, exhaustive distribution over a spatial distributive key is enforced, while on the pluractional analysis there is no such requirement. We carried out two picture verification experiments to test exhaustivity requirements in intransitive sentences with distributive share markers from two typologically different languages: the Serbian marker po and the Korean marker-ssik. We found evidence for an exhaustivity requirement over pluralities of non-atomic individuals (groups), but not over designated spatial locations. We interpret these findings as evidence that the semantics of (spatial) event distribution with distributive share markers involves a (spatial) distributive key. Specifically, po/-ssik have a universal quantificational force (with a meaning akin to per (each)) establishing a distributive relation between individual events and elements of the spatial distributive key. Plural individuals made salient in the visual input can serve to divide up the spatial key into chunks of space that have to be exhausted.
IntroductionThe goal of this paper is twofold. We first provide empirical arguments from L1 acquisition of French questions for the syntax of wh-in-situ in the adult grammar. In particular, we provide arguments for the existence of a non-lexical Q morpheme in French. (Cheng & Rooryck 2000;Mathieu 1999). The central claim we make is that this Q morpheme licenses both wh-in situ -be it in the child or the adult grammar-and partial wh-movement in French L1 acquisition (Oiry 2002).The second goal of this paper is to provide empirical arguments for alternative wh-scope marking structures in L1 acquisition of French. We argue that the seemingly surprising syntax of certain Long Distance (henceforth, LD) questions in L1 French reflects the existence in the child grammar of alternative non-adult strategies for forming wh-questions. These strategies, which involve either an argumental/referential or a non argumental/referential scope marker in the matrix, are ungrammatical in the target language but reflect parameters settings for other languages. In particular, we identify two classes of scope marking strategies: indirect vs. direct dependency strategies. Direct dependency yields both partial wh-movement and wh-in-situ: a non-lexical Q morpheme merged in the matrix Spec CP ensures that the scope of a lower wh-phrase, either in situ or partially fronted at Spell-out, is extended over the matrix clause. Indirect dependency (Dayal 1996(Dayal , 2000 involves an argument wh-phrase quantifying over propositions in the matrix clause and a subordinate wh-clause serving as a restriction on the matrix wh-quantifier. The latter appears either in situ or fronted to the matrix Spec CP in the overt syntax.We then turn to the question of how are findings bear on the issue of the acquisition stages involved in the language development process. The experimental results from the production task carried out to elicit root questions does not validate the claim that wh-in situ is the default option in French child grammar (see Hulk & Zuckerman (2000) or Zuckerman (2001), for instance). Our findings suggest that, if indeed there a preference for forming root questions, the preference is for overt wh-movement; see Deprez (1995) andSoares (2003) for similar conclusions regarding the status of wh-in situ in L1 French and L1 European Portuguese, respectively. This preliminary generalization requires further careful and systematic investigation.The syntax of long distance dependencies in French child grammar suggests, however, that the child goes through acquisition stages where long distance dependencies are not established via long movement but rather always involve local movement in the subordinate clause. The dependency between the matrix and the subordinate clause is then established via either (i): coindexation of an argument wh-phrase in the matrix clause quantifying over propositions with the subordinate wh-clause itself (indirect dependency strategy); or (ii) coindexation of a Q morpheme in the matrix clause with a lower wh-phrase itself ...
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