Coordination and sharing at the interfaces

Abstract

This thesis examines properties of a type of coordinate structure that involves shared material (i.e., elements above the point coordination that c-command all of the conjuncts), what is referred to as a sharing structure. Following the work of Johnson 1996, sharing structures are argued to exist using scope and binding facts in Gapping contexts. The role that sharing structures play in a wide variety of syntactic phenomena is then investigated. A new theory of Gapping is proposed, in which sharing structures (or Small-Conjunct structures, as they are traditionally referred to within the context of Gapping) play a central role. It is claimed that Gapping is a deletion operation which must be triggered by a specific syntactic environment - namely, a sharing structure with particular morpho-syntactic features. Sharing structures are then used to investigate the relationship between the Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC) and A-movement. Novel evidence is presented which reveal that A-movement exhibits CSC effects.

(cont.) It is shown that A-movement is similar to Quantifier Raising (QR) in the way that it obeys the CSC, and that both of these are unlike overt A'-movement. Finally, sharing structures are applied in the analysis of determiner sharing, a phenomenon first described by McCawley (1993), in which determiners on Noun Phrases (NPs) in initial conjuncts may be "shared" by corresponding, determinerless NPs in non-initial conjuncts, so long as a particular form of Gapping has taken place. Two previous analyses (Johnson 2000 and Lin 2000) are considered and revised, resulting in a new proposal regarding the syntax of Determiner Phrases (DPs), in which each determiner head (D) must be licensed by a functional head higher in the tree. It is argued that placing this new syntax of DPs in the context of sharing structures provides a simple account of the determiner sharing facts.