The Dependency Axiom and the Relation between Agreement and Movement

Abstract

Agreement and movement go hand in hand in a number of constructions across languages, and this correlation has played an important role in syntactic theory. The current standard approach to this "movement-agreement connection" is the Agree+EPP model, whose EPP component has often been questioned on conceptual grounds. The goal of this dissertation is to develop an alternative model of the movement-agreement connection that derives it from an independently motivated principle of grammar, the Dependency Axiom (DA), which regulates the way in which grammatical dependencies of different sorts are encoded syntactically. In particular, the DA prohibits configurations in which the dominant element of a dependency is asymmetrically c-commanded by the element that depends on it. In the domain of agreement, this rules out configurations in which the target of agreement (the probe) c-commands the controller of agreement (the goal). Such configurations can be repaired, however, by moving the goal outside the c-command domain of the probe: this would be the core mechanism underlying the relation between agreement and movement. Furthermore, evidence from Swedish and Hindi is discussed, which suggests that this movement does not have to target the specifier of the probe, as long as the goal escapes the c-command domain of the latter -- a state of affairs incompatible with the Agree+EPP model, but expected under the DA. The dissertation also addresses the main empirical problem of the DA theory, which is the existence of several kinds of constructions in which the goal seems never to escape the c-command domain of the probe. I show that in these construction types, agreement often obtains in violation of syntactic locality principles, and seems instead sensitive to linear adjacency. This leads to the conclusion that the relevant forms of agreement obtain at PF, and thus it not expected for them to be subject to syntactic conditions such as the DA. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]