Locality: a case study from Äiwoo

Abstract

This thesis explores issues in the syntax of Äiwoo, an understudied Oceanic language from the Solomon Islands. This language showcases an intricate system of clausal alternations, where several parameters vary independently from each other: verbal morphology, word order, and possibilities of Ā-extraction (i.e., which argument(s) may or may not be extracted). As the title indicates, this thesis is set up as a case study, in a sort of “learn by doing” fashion. I attempt to build a descriptively and explanatory adequate formal model of the clausal alternation system in Äiwoo, within a Minimalist framework. By doing so, I examine what a theory of grammar must look like for the model to work as intended. Building such a model of Äiwoo teaches us something about a number of central issues in syntactic theory such as the locality of movement, the A /Ā-distinction, and the syntax of Austronesian languages specifically. I show that conjoining van Urk’s (2015) theory of the A /Ā-distinction and to the independent idea of featurally relativized probes (Béjar 2003), we predict the existence of “non-local A-movement”, that is, movement with the binding-theoretical properties of A-movement that nonetheless does not obey strict DPlocality, and crucially without the need of invoking the notion of “mixed A /Ā-movement”. I show that two instances of this predicted kind of movement are attested in the Äiwoo clause: movement to both spec,TP and spec,CP can target either the subject or – nonlocally – the object, depending on their features. I also propose that features assigned by a probe to a goal (“goal-flagging”; Deal to appear, Clem & Deal 2024) can be further manipulated by the syntax, being searched for by a higher probe. Further, Äiwoo shows an interesting instantiation of the Austronesian “pivot-only” Āextraction restriction, in that it comes with a series of exceptions. I argue that in Äiwoo, this restriction is caused by an Ā-intervention effect, contra analyses of this phenomenon in other Austronesian languages based on phasehood (Rackowski & Richards 2005, Erlewine & C. Lim 2023, Hsieh 2025, a.o.) or DP-intervention (Aldridge 2004, 2008, a.o.). Notably, as soon as the highest DP in a clause does not carry Ā-features, the restriction vanishes, thus allowing for the “exceptional” extraction of lower arguments.