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VSO Order and Weak Pronouns in Goidelic Celtic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

David Adger
David Adger*
Affiliation:
University of York
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Abstract

This article examines the placement of weak pronominal objects in Goidelic Celtic. These elements appear in a far-right position in the clause, in spite of their prosodic lightness. Previous analyses have put this phenomenon down to either a language and construction specific rule, or to a side effect of clausal organisation. The article examines the most articulated current version of the latter option, shows how it suffers from serious empirical and conceptual problems and develops in its place an approach in which the pronouns remain internal to the verb phrase with their precise position determined by prosodic factors. This collapses the surprising behaviour of weak pronouns in Goidelic with that of weak pronouns in Germanic. The apparent differences in the positioning of pronouns between the two language families derive from independent aspects of clausal architecture. The new approach uses a much less articulated clausal structure but an enriched view of the syntax-prosody interface.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article examine le placement des pronoms faibles en celtique gœdelique. Ces éléments apparaissent dans une position éloignée dans la partie droite de la phrase en dépit de leur manque de poids prosodique. Les analyses précédentes ont considéré ce phénomène comme spécifique à la langue et à la construction en question ou bien comme un effet secondaire attribuable à l’architecture phrastique. Cet article examine la version courante la plus articulée de cette dernière option, met en lumière ses importants défauts empiriques et conceptuels et développe plutôt une approche qui maintient que les pronoms demeurent dans une position interne au VP, leur positionnement précis étant déterminé par des facteurs prosodiques. Cette approche réduit le comportement surprenant des pronoms faibles en gœdelique à celui des pronoms faibles dans les langues germaniques. Les différences apparentes entre les deux familles de langues sont dues à des différences indépendantes d’architecture phrastique. Cette nouvelle approche fait appel à une architecture phrastique beaucoup moins articulée et à une version enrichie de l’interface entre la syntaxe et la prosodic.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 42 , Special Issue 1-2: Topics in Celtic Syntax , June 1997 , pp. 9 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1997

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