Locality in Grammar

Locality in Grammar: From Narrow Syntax to Interfaces investigates the operation of locality conditions in syntax and semantics from a cross-linguistic perspective. It is claimed that there are two different types of locality conditions. One is the Generalized Minimality Condition (GMC), and the other is the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). This book demonstrates that these locality conditions play different roles in different computational components of human language, and, therefore, cannot be unified as one constraint as proposed in the literature. The main idea of the book is that the two different locality conditions are sensitive to the difference between syntactic derivation and semantic interpretation and that of overt and covert syntactic derivations. Further investigation shows a more fine-grained distinction must be made between syntactic computations. It is true that GMC does not constrain overt syntactic derivations and PIC does not play a role in semantic interpretations; however, they both regulate covert syntactic computations. This book will inform postgraduate students and scholars in the field of linguistics.

Xiaoshi Hu is Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tsinghua University. He specializes in formal syntax, syntax-semantics interface, and French and Chinese linguistics. His research interests include various topics of the syntax of French and Chinese and other Romance and East-Asian languages.

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Theoretical Foundations: Two Concepts of Locality 2.1 Locality constraints in the Extended Standard Framework 2.1.1 Cyclicity 2.1.2 Superiority 2.2 Locality Constraints in the Government and Binding Framework 2.2.1 Subjacency 2.2.2 Empty Category Principle 2.2.3 Condition on Extraction Domain 2.2.4 Barrier 2.2.5 Relativized Minimality 2.3 Locality Constraints in Minimalist Program 2.3.1 Minimal Link Condition 2.3.2 Phase Impenetrability Condition 2.4 The Unification or Disjunction of Locality Constraints 2.4.1 The Unification of Localities in the Government and Binding Framework 2.4.2 The Unification of Locality Constraints in Minimalist Program 2.4.2.1 Subsumption under MLC 2.4.2.2 Subsumption under PIC 2.4.2.3 Objections to the Unification 2.5 Summary Chapter 3 Locality in Incorporation: Evidence from Cliticization in French 3.1 Morphological Forms and Feature Content of French Clitics 3.2 Cliticization in Mono-Clausal Constructions in French 3.3 Cliticization in Bi-Clausal Constructions in French 3.3.1 Cliticization in Control and Completive Constructions 3.3.2 Cliticization in Raising and ECM Constructions 3.4 Causative Constructions in French 3.3.1 A Bi-Clausal Analysis 3.3.2 Deriving the VOS Order 3.5 Cliticization in the Faire-Causatives 3.5.1 Argument Clitics 3.5.2 Adjunct Clitics 3.5.3 Reflexive Clitics 3.6 Summary Chapter 4 Locality in Phrasal Movement: Evidence from Passivization in Chinese 4.1 Previous Studies on Bèi-Passives 4.1.1 Non-Unified Analysis 4.1.2 Unified Analysis 4.1.3 Summary 4.2 The Syntactic Status of the Passivized NP 4.3 The Syntactic Derivation of Passivization in Chinese 4.3.1 On the Covert Agent in Short Passives 4.3.2 Passivization as Topicalization 4.3.3 Indirect Passives and Dangling Topic 4.4 Locality Conditions in Passivization 4.4.1 Locality Conditions in Indirect Passives 4.4.2 Locality Conditions in Causative-Passive Correlation 4.5 Summary Chapter 5 Locality at Covert Syntax: Evidence from Quantifier Raising 5.1 Quantifier Raising and the Covert Syntactic Computation 5.1.1 Quantifier Raising and Feature Valuation 5.1.2 Landing Site of Quantifier Raising 5.2 Scope Interactions in Double Object and Dative Constructions 5.3 Quantificational Relations in the Bi-Clausal Constructions 5.3.1 Quantificational Relations in the Raising Construction 5.3.2 Quantificational Relations in the ECM Construction 5.3.3 Quantificational Relations in the Completive Construction 5.3.4 Quantificational Relations in the Faire-Causatives 5.4 Further discussion on locality effects 5.4.1 Syntactic movements as reference-set computation 5.4.2 Syntactic movements reinterpreted by locality 5.4.3 Semantic Interpretation of Quantifiers as Reference-Set Computation 5.4.4 Semantic Interpretation of Quantifiers Reinterpreted by Locality 5.5 Summary Chapter 6 Locality in the Semantic Component: Evidence from the Respectively-Interpretation 6.1 The Bijective Distributive Interpretation of Fenbié 6.2 Pivotal Constructions in Chinese, English, and French 6.2.1 The Bi-Clausal Constructions in English and French 6.2.2 The Pivotal Constructions in Chinese 6.2.2.1 Finiteness in Chinese 6.2.2.2 Chinese as a Tenseless Language 6.2.2.3 The Internal Structure of the Pivotal Constructions in Chinese 6.3 The Respectively-Interpretation in Chinese Pivotal Constructions 6.3.1 The Interpretation of Fenbié in Mono-Clausal Constructions 6.3.2 The Interpretation of Fenbié in Control Constructions 6.3.3 The Interpretation of Fenbié in Non-Control Constructions 6.4 The Respectively-Interpretation in French 6.5 Further Discussion on Locality in Semantic Computations: Indexical Shift 6.6 Summary Chapter 7 Conclusions 7.1 Localities in French and Chinese 7.2 On the Two Concepts of Localities References Index