Ivona Kučerová

Contrasts and positions in information structure

1. Introduction Ivona Kucerova and Ad Neeleman Part I. The Architecture of Grammar and the Primitives of Information Structure: 2. Predicate integration: phrase structure or argument structure? Daniel Buring 3. Wh-intonation and information structure in South Kyeongsang Korean and Tokyo Japanese Hyun Kyung Hwang 4. Grammatical marking of givenness Ivona Kucerova 5. Interface configurations: identificational focus and the flexibility of syntax Balazs Suranyi 6. Focus and givenness: a unified approach Michael Wagner 7. The locality of focusing and the coherence of anaphors Edwin Williams Part II. Exploring the Interfaces: Case Studies: 8. NP ellipsis without focus movement/projections: the role of classifiers Artemis Alexiadou and Kirsten Gengel 9. Focus in Greek wh-questions Theodora Alexopoulou and Mary Baltazani 10. Against FocusP: arguments from Zulu Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Laura J. Downing 11. Scrambling as formal movement Gisbert Fanselow 12. Left peripheral arguments and discourse interface strategies in Yucatec Maya Stavros Skopeteas and Elisabeth Verhoeven References.

The T-Extension Condition

This article presents a case study of Czech that opens the possibility of unifying various second-position phenomena as instances of an interface condition on head extension. The condition requires a head to undergo at least two instances of merge within its phase. The core of the article explores properties of T0. It is shown that any merge (external or internal, merge of a head or a phrase) yields a well-formed structure. Since it does not matter to the requirement what category merges to T0, the condition must be stated as a general requirement on what category may be the root. Cet article présente une étude de cas du tchèque qui rend possible une analyse unifiée de divers phénomènes de deuxième position selon laquelle ils sont tous le résultat d’une condition d’interface sur l’extension d’une tête. La condition exige qu’une tête doit subir au moins deux occurrences de fusion à l’intérieur de sa phase. La partie centrale de l’article étudie les propriétés de T0. Il est démontré que n’importe quelle occurrence de fusion (externe ou interne, fusion d’une tête ou d’un syntagme) crée une structure bien formée. Puisque la catégorie de l’élément qui fusionne à T0 n’est pas importante, la condition doit être formulée comme une exigence générale sur la catégorie de la racine.

ɸ-Features at the Syntax-Semantics Interface: Evidence from Nominal Inflection

I argue for a novel model of feature valuation in the CI interface and explore under what circumstances a syntactic feature is semantically interpretable. As the groundwork for the investigation, I propose an explicit Distributed Morphology model of Italian nouns of profession. The data provide evidence that the morphology accesses the narrow-syntax representation at two different temporal points within a phase: the earlier point (Spell-Out) returns a morphological realization faithful to feature values present in narrow syntax, while the later point (Transfer) allows for a narrow-syntax representation to be enriched by the CI component. Thus, there is no syntactic distinction between interpretable and uninterpretable features: a syntactic feature appears to be interpretable only if it has been licensed by the CI interface.