Papers by Željko Bošković
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
The paper examines certain constructions where clitics exceptionally license sloppy readings and ... more The paper examines certain constructions where clitics exceptionally license sloppy readings and argues that such constructions involve a clitic doubling structure where the double, which is responsible for the sloppy reading, undergoes argument ellipsis. Typological consequences of the proposed analysis are also discussed. Additionally, a number of conclusions are reached regarding the nature of clitic doubling and especially argument ellipsis, for which a new semantically-based analysis is proposed where argument ellipsis is defi ned in terms of its semantic type and implemented in terms of LF copying. The analysis also considerably broadens the scope of the phenomenon, eliminating the need for independent parameterization regarding the availability of argument ellipsis across languages. The paper also addresses the more general issue of whether certain interpretations of nominal expressions are derived via type-shifting triggered by null heads present in the syntax, or post-syntactically, without corresponding syntactic structure.*
North East Linguistics Society, 2001
Philosophies, Jan 22, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The paper examines the C particle kong in Taiwanese. Following Simpson and Wu (2002), the paper a... more The paper examines the C particle kong in Taiwanese. Following Simpson and Wu (2002), the paper argues that tone sandhi that kong participates in provides an argument for multiple spell-out. It is also shown that the kong construction can be used to tease apart different approaches to multiple spell-out and successive-cyclic movement. In particular, tone sandhi with kong provides evidence for the approach argued for in Bošković (2016a), which dispenses with the Phase-Impenetrability Condition and where spell-out targets phases and successive-cyclic movement targets phrases above phases. The paper also provides a uniform account of the derivational PF effect regarding tone sandhi in Taiwanese and the derivational PF effect regarding primary stress assignment in English noted in Bresnan (1972).*
The gender of the adjective and the participle depends on the gender of the noun. Green can be fe... more The gender of the adjective and the participle depends on the gender of the noun. Green can be feminine, neuter, or masculine; which gender it has depends on the noun it modifies. As Pesetsky & Torrego (2007) (PT) note, the dependence of the gender value of adjectives and participles on the syntactic context in which they occur can be easily captured if they are lexically unvalued for gender: they receive their gender value after undergoing agreement with a noun that already has a valued gender. In contrast to the adjective/participle in (1)-(3), nouns like kola, auto, and automobil have a fixed gender specification: kola is always feminine, auto neuter, and automobil masculine. The most straightforward way of capturing this is to assume nominal gender is lexically valued; in contrast to adjectives/participles, nouns do not receive their gender value during syntactic derivation, hence their gender value does not depend on their syntactic context.
Lingua, 1995
... therein), all of which crucially depend on the fact that (iab) are questions, and thus cannot... more ... therein), all of which crucially depend on the fact that (iab) are questions, and thus cannot be extended to (9b), (10), and (4b,d), which are simple declarative sentences (note that both (ia) and (ib ... beaten was Petar 'He had beaten Petar.' (14b) Kad istukao budes Petra, pozovi me. ...
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2009
Background: Abnormal white matter development may disrupt integration within neural circuits, cau... more Background: Abnormal white matter development may disrupt integration within neural circuits, causing particular impairments in higher-order behaviours. In autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), white matter alterations may contribute to characteristic deficits in complex socio-emotional and communication domains. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) to evaluate white matter microstructure in ASD. Methods/Principal Findings: DTI scans were acquired for 19 children and adolescents with ASD (,8-18 years; mean 12.463.1) and 16 age and IQ matched controls (,8-18 years; mean 12.363.6) on a 3T MRI system. DTI values for fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity and axial diffusivity, were measured. Age by group interactions for global and voxel-wise white matter indices were examined. Voxel-wise analyses comparing ASD with controls in: (i) the full cohort (ii), children only (#12 yrs.), and (iii) adolescents only (.12 yrs.) were performed, followed by tract-specific comparisons. Significant age-by-group interactions on global DTI indices were found for all three diffusivity measures, but not for fractional anisotropy. Voxel-wise analyses revealed prominent diffusion measure differences in ASD children but not adolescents, when compared to healthy controls. Widespread increases in mean and radial diffusivity in ASD children were prominent in frontal white matter voxels. Follow-up tract-specific analyses highlighted disruption to pathways integrating frontal, temporal, and occipital structures involved in socio-emotional processing. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings highlight disruption of neural circuitry in ASD, particularly in those white matter tracts that integrate the complex socio-emotional processing that is impaired in this disorder.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 1996
This paper is a contribution .to the attempt to eliminate c-selection as an autonomous mechanism ... more This paper is a contribution .to the attempt to eliminate c-selection as an autonomous mechanism of grammar. We provide evidence against c-selection for different types of infinitival clauses and give an analysis of infinitival complementation based on the Case-theoretic account of the distribution of PRO, which we argue is superior to the standard binding-theoretic account. We argue that, like ECM infinitivals, control infinitivals can be of category IP. More precisely, we argue that as long as the CP status is not required by lexical properties independent of c-selection, control infinitivals not introduced by an overt complementizer are IPs. The IP status is forced on such infinitivals by the Principle of Economy of Representation. * This paper is a revised version of some parts of my 1992 paper 'Clausal Selection, Minimality, and Subjacency' (submitted as General Examination Paper at the University of Connecticut in 1993). I am grateful to Howard Lasnik, Mamoru Saito, and anonymous NLLT reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions on previous versions. Thanks are also due to
8 (FaU2ool).1 thank these audiences and Cedric Boeckx, Sam Epstein, and Howard Lasnik for helpful... more 8 (FaU2ool).1 thank these audiences and Cedric Boeckx, Sam Epstein, and Howard Lasnik for helpful comments. This paper is a shorter version ofBo~koviC (2oolc). 'More precisely, A-movement I do not discuss the possibility of A'-movement of expletives. 102002 by Zeljko Bo~koviC NELS 32 1 Boškovi?: Expletives Don't Move Published by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2002 'S •• BoAkovic (1997) for details of the analysis. The upshot of the analysis is that equidistance allows skipping of one, but not two Specs, which is what would have to happen with agentive constructions (see Bo §koviC 1997 for discussion of simple transitives). I argue that the agentivc shell, which is responsible for tbe ungranunaticalityof(2). is notpresenl in passives, which gives us a straightforward account of the contrast between (2) and (i). (The additional agentive shell i. also not present with verbs like believe. which can ECM.) (i) a. The woman was wagered to know French. b. The stodents were alleged to have arrived late. 'There is apparently some disagreement among French speakers with respect to constructions like (6).
December 2016; revised April 2018 On the Syntax and Prosody of Verb Second and Clitic Second Želj... more December 2016; revised April 2018 On the Syntax and Prosody of Verb Second and Clitic Second Željko Bošković University of Connecticut While this paper addresses a number of properties o f V-2 and clitic second phenomena, which includes accounting for the immobility of V-2 claus es and determining the factor responsible for the availability of second position systems, the ov rarching unifying concern in the discussion is to examine to what extent V-2 and clitic second can be unified structurally and prosodically. The V-2 and the clitic second effect have attr ac ed a great deal of attention in the literature o n the languages that exhibit them due to the pervasiv e effect they have on such languages. At least superficially, there is clearly some similarity bet w en the two. It is then not surprising that there have been attempts to treat them in a unified manne r. This paper examines the viability of unifying the two structurally. Approaches along the se lines typically unify the tw...
Preface Introduction Theoretical and empirical scope of this volume Outline Serbo-Croatian Second... more Preface Introduction Theoretical and empirical scope of this volume Outline Serbo-Croatian Second Position Cliticization: Syntax and/or Phonology? Approaches to second position cliticization in Serbo-Croatian Syntactic accounts of second position cliticization Phonological approaches to second position cliticization Concluding remarks More on Second Position Clitics: Pronunciation of Non-Trivial Chains Pronunciation of non-trivial chains and the copy theory of movement A phonology/syntax mixmatch: Serbo-Croatian je Other consequences of the pronounce-a-copy analysis for Serbo-Croatian clitics Slovenian clitics Polish clitics The V-2 effect in Germanic Bulgarian and Macedonian Clitics Pronominal clitics Auxiliary clitics Li Concluding remarks Appendix A Appendix B Conclusion References Index
Gengo Kenkyu: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan, 2017
The paper examines the C particle kong in Taiwanese. Following Simpson and Wu (2002), the paper a... more The paper examines the C particle kong in Taiwanese. Following Simpson and Wu (2002), the paper argues that tone sandhi that kong participates in provides an argument for multiple spell-out. It is also shown that the kong construction can be used to tease apart different approaches to multiple spell-out and successive-cyclic movement. In particular, tone sandhi with kong provides evidence for the approach argued for in Bošković (2016a), which dispenses with the Phase-Impenetrability Condition and where spell-out targets phases and successive-cyclic movement targets phrases above phases. The paper also provides a uniform account of the derivational PF effect regarding tone sandhi in Taiwanese and the derivational PF effect regarding primary stress assignment in English noted in Bresnan (1972).*
The central problem for the linguistic theory, often referred to as Plato's problem, is how c... more The central problem for the linguistic theory, often referred to as Plato's problem, is how children are able to acquire language despite the impoverished nature of the linguistic data they are exposed to. The Principles and Parameters approach provides a viable solution to Plato's problem. The basic idea is that children are biologically endowed with a set of principles, which are invariant across languages, and a set of parameters, which provide limited options for language variation and which can be easily set on the basis of the linguistic data children are exposed to. These principles and parameters comprise what is referred to as Universal Grammar, a genetic endowment which helps children acquire language and as such represents an answer to Plato's problem in the domain of language. Principles are not subject to language variation, they hold across all languages with equal force. As an illustration, the Theta Criterion (which may be at least partially subsumable un...
Smuggling refers to a situation where movement of α would induce a violation that is voided by m... more Smuggling refers to a situation where movement of α would induce a violation that is voided by movement of a larger constituent β that contains α, which is followed by movement of α. Smuggling thus involves movement out of a moved element, which is traditionally assumed not to be possible (the constraint is referred to as the freezing ban). This chapter shows that there is no general freezing ban. Extraction out of moved elements is generally allowed. The cases where such extraction appears not to be allowed involve independent problems concerning labeling. The chapter re-examines from this perspective (which allows but restricts the possibilities for smuggling) the smuggling derivations proposed in Collins (2005a, 2005b), focusing on the passive construction, and the smuggling analysis of tough-constructions proposed in Hicks (2009). A modified version of the latter is argued to be superior to the traditional null Op analysis of tough-constructions. Several conclusions regarding the structure of infinitives are also drawn; thus, the discussion of tough-construction coordinations provides evidence against analyses which place infinitival to low in the structure. The discussion in the chapter also shows that there is a strong relationship between movement and labeling: unlabeled elements cannot undergo movement; unlabeled elements do not function as interveners; and movement cannot target unlabeled elements.
Studies in Modern Grammar
The goal of this paper is to examine a rather interesting paradigm involving mixed clausal coordi... more The goal of this paper is to examine a rather interesting paradigm involving mixed clausal coordination, where different types of clauses (finite CPs, ECM, and control infinitives) are coordinated. It will be shown that the paradigm in question has consequences for several phenomena; in particular it sheds light on the controversial issue of the proper analysis of PRO as well as the issue of whether the SpecvP where the subject is base-generated is higher or lower than the SpecvP which serves as the landing site of object shift.
Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change, 2002
The paper argues for a unification of the ban on extraction out of conjuncts and the ban on extra... more The paper argues for a unification of the ban on extraction out of conjuncts and the ban on extraction out of adjuncts based on the semantics of traditional adjunction modification on which such modification actually involves coordination, with ConjP present in the syntax of traditional adjunct modification. It is shown that there are a number of similarities in the islandhood of conjuncts and the islandhood of adjuncts. Thus, extraction out of conjuncts and extraction out of adjuncts are shown to be exceptionally possible in exactly the same environments, which can be captured if the two involve the same syntactic configuration. The proposed analysis is also shown to capture in a principled way a number of differences in the strength of the violation with extraction out of conjuncts and adjuncts in various languages/contexts, the emphasis regarding the former being on Galician, English, Japanese, and Serbo-Croatian.
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Papers by Željko Bošković