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Share Paper 3228

Raising to Object out of CP as Embedded Left Dislocations: Evidence from Three Formosan Languages
Victoria Chen and Shin Fukuda
88-98 (complete paper or proceedings contents)

Abstract

Raising to Object (RTO) refers to a phenomenon in which a semantically and thematically embedded element (i.e. XP) appears to surface outside of the embedded clause and exhibits characteristics typical of matrix objects. Past studies have shown that RTO constructions cross-linguistically can be divided into at least six subtypes, which vary in terms of the size of the embedded complement and the presence or absence of a movement of an XP out of the embedded clause. This paper presents novel RTO data from three Formosan (Austronesian) languages, Puyuma, Amis and Seediq, which exhibit a number of similarities, yet differ from one another in terms of (i) the case restriction of the XP and (ii) island-sensitivity. We argue that these micro-variations can be accounted for by analyzing RTO in the three languages as utilizing three distinct strategies that diverge from one another in terms of the presence or absence of a null Operator (Op) inside the embedded clause, and the status of the Op as being base-generated or A'-moved. The present approach to the micro-variation of Formosan RTO provides novel support for recent work on CP complementation, which argues that CPs are not natural predicates, and that languages may utilize different strategies in establishing a relation between a CP and a constituent external to it (Rothstein 1991; Landau 2011).

Published in

Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
edited by Kyeong-min Kim, Pocholo Umbal, Trevor Block, Queenie Chan, Tanie Cheng, Kelli Finney, Mara Katz, Sophie Nickel-Thompson, and Lisa Shorten
Table of contents
Printed edition: $375.00