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Possessor Raising in Nuu-chah-nulth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Christine Ravinski*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia

Abstract

Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is semantically unrestricted and affects only subjects: subject agreement matches the person and number of the possessor (rather than the possessed subject), and the possessive-marking clitic attaches to the head of the clause (rather than to the possessum). Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is analyzed as a syntactic dependency between the possessive clitic in the main clause and the base-generated possessor position within DP. A Possessive Phrase can appear in either the DP or the clausal domain, and the possessive clitic may be generated in either position. When the possessive clitic is generated in the main clause, a possessor may raise out of subject position via feature-driven movement; the Minimal Link Condition prevents such movement from occurring out of object position.

Résumé

Résumé

En nuu-chah-nulth, le déplacement du possesseur n’est pas sujet à des contraintes sémantiques et peut seulement cibler la position de sujet. L’accord sujet (en personne et en nombre) s’effectue avec le possesseur (plutôt que le sujet possédé) et le clitique possessif s’attache à la tête de la phrase (plutôt que sur le possessum). Le déplacement du possesseur en nuu-chah-nulth est ici analysé comme une dépendance syntaxique entre le clitique possessif dans la phrase matrice et la position de possesseur à l’intérieur du syntagme déterminant (SD). Un Syntagme Possessif peut apparaître soit dans le SD ou dans le domaine de la phrase matrice et le clitique possessif peut être généré dans l’une ou l’autre de ces deux positions. Lorsque le clitique possessif est engendré dans la phrase matrice, un possesseur peut se déplacer depuis la position sujet via le mouvement légitimé par la vérification de traits; la condition sur le lien minimal empêche par ailleurs que l’origine de ce mouvement soit la position d’objet.

Type
Part III: Morpho-Syntactic and Syntactic Properties
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2007

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