Richard S. Kayne

French syntax : the transformational cycle

Carried out within the framework of the theory of generative grammar originated with Noam Chomsky in the 1950s, this book should be of particular interest to those either active in or conversant with the field of generative grammar and also to those just beginning the study of generative grammar. Those readers interested in French syntax, but outside the domain of generative grammar, should find profitable Kaynes detailed discussion of various grammatical phenomena and should find stimulating the claim that the theory of generative grammar can provide revealing solutions to traditionally unsolved or unnoticed problems.

Overt vs. Covert Movements

In a number of cases (involving, e.g., negation, only, reverse scope of some and every, ACD) where covert (LF) phrasal movement has been postulated, it is possible and advantageous to dispense with covert movement (including feature raising) and replace it with a combination of overt movements of phonetically realized phrases. The strongest interpretation of this conclusion is that the cases explicitly considered are typical. UG leaves no choice: Scope must be expressed hierarchically, there are no covert LF phrasal movements permitted by UG, and neither can the effect of covert phrasal movement be achieved by feature raising. Scope reflects the interaction of merger and overt movement.

Null Subjects and Clitic Climbing

In earlier work,1 we proposed that the contrast between French and Italian seen in the clitic climbing construction in (1) should be related to the contrast between them seen in (2) concerning null subjects: (1)a. *Jean les veut voir. b. Gianni li vuole vedere. John them-want to-see (2)a. *Pleut. b. Piove. Rains

Having 'Need' and Needing 'Have'

A survey of a number of the world’s languages reveals that only those languages that have a transitive verb used to express possession (i.e., Have-languages) also have a transitive verb ‘need’. No Be-language lacking a transitive verb for possession has a transitive verb ‘need’. This generalization suggests a Hale and Keyser (1993, 2002)–style incorporation approach, whereby nominal ‘need’ incorporates to an unpronounced verbal HAVE, yielding transitive verbal ‘need’.

The Silence of Heads

Abstract On the basis of considerations involving complementizers, sentence-final particles, need, aspect, tense, focus and topic, agreement morphemes, determiners, verbrelated particles and adpositions, I reach the conclusion that many more heads in the sentential projection line (and elsewhere) must be taken to be silent than is usually thought. I then argue that this state of affairs ultimately reflects the fact that every projecting head is silent. 提要 本文探討的對象包括標句詞、句末助詞、“need”、體、時、焦點與話題、一致關係 語素、限定詞、與動詞有關的助詞、介詞，得出的結論是：在句子投射系列及其他 位置上，無聲中心語的數目應該遠多於過去所理解。本文進而指出，以上的情況都 說明一個事實，那就是中心語都是無聲的成分。

Agreement and Verb Morphology in Three Varieties of English

Based on data concerning agreement and floated quantifiers from standard English and two non-standard variants, various generalizations are drawn as to when and how the functional head Num is spelled out.

English One and Ones as Complex Determiners

One and ones are complex determiners whose relation to their antecedent, when they have one, is mediated by a silent noun. They are never themselves nouns taking an antecedent directly. All instances of non-numeral one are associated with a classifier, plus an indefinite article. Numeral one is in addition associated with an element akin to single. The analysis proposed unifies prenominal one with the one of a blue one and blue ones. The syntax of one and ones is best understood if all nonlocal syntactic relations necessarily involve internal merge.

Toward an understanding of apparent suppletion in Romance pronominal possessives

Abstract The Italian pair *il luo libro vs. il suo libro (‘the his/her book’) that is typical of Romance lends itself to an account of the first in terms of constraints also seen in the syntax of compounding, and to an account of the second that links its s-, despite initial appearances, to what we think of as Romance reflexive s-. We might informally call this pair an instance of suppletion, as long as we recognize that calling it suppletion falls short of an account.