Bacskai-Atkari Julia. The syntax of functional left peripheries: Clause typing in West Germanic and beyond

Berlin: Language Science Press, 2023. — xiii, 343 p. — (Open Germanic Linguistics 5). — ISBN 978-3-96110-421-5.This book provides a novel analysis for the syntax of the clausal left periphery, focusing on various finite clause types and especially on embedded clauses. It investigates how the appearance of multiple projections interacts with economy principles and with the need for marking syntactic information overtly. In particular, the proposed account shows that a flexible approach assuming only a minimal number of projections is altogether favourable to cartographic approaches. The main focus of the book is on West Germanic, in particular on English and German, yet other Germanic and non-Germanic languages are also discussed for comparative purposes.Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
Aims and scope.
Functional left peripheries.
The problems to be discussed.
The model.
Embedded interrogative clauses.
Relative clauses.
Embedded degree clauses.
Information structure and ellipsis.
Methodology.
Previous work.
Roadmap.
A feature-based approach to functional left peripheries.
Introduction.
Previous accounts.
The problems to be discussed.
The cartographic approach – Rizzi (1997, 2004).
A minimal CP – Sobin (2002).
Lower left peripheries – Poletto (2006).
Introducing a flexible approach.
Embedded interrogatives.
Relative clauses.
Embedded degree clauses.
Summary.
Doubly Filled COMP in interrogatives and the role of finiteness in V2.
Introduction.
Previous accounts.
The problems to be discussed.
Surface filters – Chomsky & Lasnik (1977).
Variation in the CP – Bayer & Brandner (2008).
Approaches to Doubly Filled COMP.
Embedded constituent questions.
Embedded polar questions.
Basic properties.
English.
Old Saxon and Old High German.
Dutch.
Doubly Filled COMP and V2.
Declarative clauses.
Interrogative clauses.
Long movement.
Summary.
The left periphery of relative clauses.
Introduction.
Complementisers — Brandner & Bräuning (2013).
Relative pronouns versus complementisers.
Variation and change in English.
Background and methodology.
The results.
Discussion.
Doubling in relative clauses.
Doubling in free relatives.
Triple combinations.
Equative relative clauses.
Summary.
Equatives, comparatives and the marking of polarity.
Introduction.
Comparison and degree.
Polarity.
Grammaticalisation in German.
Dialectal variation.
The data.
Analysis.
Discussion and predictions.
Polarity marking cross-linguistically.
Hypothetical comparatives.
The data.
The analysis.
Summary.
Ellipsis and the role of information structure in left peripheries.
Introduction.
Information structure and leftward movement.
Ellipsis and leftward movement.
Lower peripheries.
Sluicing.
Ellipsis in comparatives.
The basic data.
Experimental methodology.
The results for the basic condition.
The results for the perfective condition.
Discussion.
Summary.
Conclusion.
References.
Index.
Name index.