Quirks of subject (non-)extraction in Igbo
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Date
2019
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Publisher
Ubiquity Presss
Abstract
In this paper we present new data on a subject/non-subject extraction asymmetry in Igbo constituent questions. We provide evidence that the superficially morphological phenomenon reflects a deeper syntactic asymmetry: Unlike wh-non-subjects, wh-subjects cannot undergo local -movement to the left periphery (SpecFoc); rather, they have to stay in their canonical position SpecT. The same constraint also leads to the that-trace effect (absence of the complementizer) in the embedded clause of long subject wh-movement. We argue that what is responsible for the special status of wh-subjects is their high structural position. We provide an optimality-theoretic analysis of the asymmetry that is based on anti-locality: Local subject -movement is excluded because it is too short. Moreover, we address the nature of apparent wh-in-situ in Igbo.
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Keywords
extraction asymmetries, wh-movement, wh-in-situ, focus marking, that-trace effect
Citation
Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4(1): 69. 1–36.