Wholesale Late Merger: Beyond the A/A[over-bar] Distinction

Abstract

In this article, we develop a substantially expanded theory of late merger. Adopting related insights by Fox (2002), we argue that late merger is permitted whenever an output representation can be interpreted in the semantic component. A consequence of our approach is that late merger is available not only for the well-known case of adjuncts, but also for restrictors of determiners (wholesale late merger). We demonstrate that this theory can explain the different reconstruction possibilities of A-movement and A-movement, as well as various otherwise puzzling facts about movement and ellipsis, while still maintaining the copy theory of movement.