Nominal subextractions and the structure of NPs in Serbian and English

Abstract

The thesis argues for a remnant movement analysis of constructions referred to in the literature as Left Branch Extractions (LBE). The best known cases of LBE,

or what I term split-XPs, are found in Slavic languages, which allow all prenominal

constituents to be separated from the noun they modify. I argue that the derivation

of these constructions proceeds in two steps. First, the non-focused material

is vacated out of the DP/PP in order to restrict the focus domain to the prenominal

modifier. Subsequently, the remnant XP is fronted to the specifier of focus

phrase. The remnant movement analysis easily tackles the problem of apparent

non-constituent movement in split PPs, as well as accounts for the preservation of

ordering restrictions within the DP and the observation that both parts of the split

must occupy derived positions. On the theoretical side, I argue that not all movement

operations can be characterized in terms of Attract feature, as standardly

assumed within the Minimalist framework. In particular, I assume that the first

movement step is brought about by the properties of the source position, rather

than by any formal requirement of the target, and correlate this with the ability

of the first movement operation to circumvent islands. Finally, I show that crosslinguistic

variation regarding the possibility of extracting left branch constituents

cannot be reduced to the presence vs absence of a determiner phrase, as suggested

in previous analyses.Interestingly, Bulgarian which differs from other Slavic languages

in having overt articles, seems to allow the constructions in question, thus

suggesting that the locus of parametric variation must be sought in properties other

than the categorial status of noun phrases.