This article explores the apphcation ofthe phonological notion of underspecification to syntactic features Two notwns of feature underspecification are mtroduced, a-specificatton and 0-specificatwn This proposal is supported with datafmm agreement m relative clauses m various dialects ofFrench It is argued that the agreement features of C? can be partly transparent (a-value) or opaque (0-value) The System of transparent and opaque syntactic features is then compared to transparent and opaque vowel harmony Systems (van der Hülst and van de Weijer 1993) An Attribute -Value System for the representatwn of features might allowfor a feature theory that is accessible äs a module ofthe grammar to both syntax and phonology
Abstract. Raising-to-subject (SpecAGRsP) verbs such äs seem and so-called ECM or raising-to-object (SpecAGRoP) verbs such äs believe display a semantic alternation that can be captured in the same way äs in Freeze's (1993) and Kayne's (1994) analysis of have and be. With respect to the syntax of the sentential complement of these verbs, it is shown that analyses of raising and ECM in terms of a 'reduced' sentential complement are theoretically and empirically untenable. An analysis of raising is developed which requires two Steps: in the embedded CP complement'of seem/believe, AGRSP first moves to SpecCP before the subject in the embedded SpecAGRsP moves to the matrix SpecAGRs/oP (seemjbelieve) position. The first step is motivated äs Focusmovement, and allows for an explanation of the relation of seem type verbs to verbs of comparison in many languages. The presence of a [+Focus] C° in the sentential complement of seem/believe also accounts for Focus-related restrictions on the subject of the embedded complement of believe type verbs, which were observed by Postal (1974) for a subset of English ECM verbs (bis DOCverbs) and by Kayne (1981) and Pollock (1985) for French ECM verbs.
This article examines French wh-in-situ. We argue that wh-in-situ in French is licensed by an intonation morpheme, which also licenses yes/no questions. Movement of a Q-feature of an in-situ wh-word is required to disambiguate the underspecified intonation morpheme. The underspecification nature of this intonation morpheme leads to limited distribution of French wh-in-situ. We further compare French wh-in-situ with Chinese and Portuguese, showing that wh-in-situ in different languages can in fact have different properties.
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