Empty operator raising in Kitharaka
The Kenyan Bantu language Kitharaka (E.54) has a biclausal construction in which a verb with an athematic subject takes a finite complement. A referential NP in the matrix subject position may acquire its thematic role through linkage with an argument at a lower level of embedding. The paper present...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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LibraryPress@UF
1997-06-01
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| Series: | Studies in African Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/107390 |
| Summary: | The Kenyan Bantu language Kitharaka (E.54) has a biclausal construction in which a verb with an athematic subject takes a finite complement. A referential NP in the matrix subject position may acquire its thematic role through linkage with an argument at a lower level of embedding. The paper presents evidence that this construction, referred to as Empty Operator Raising, involves empty operator movement, although it is also semantically similar to Raising-to-Subject. If the matrix subject is distinct from the subject of the nearest embedded clause, this clause must contain a clefted NP. The author proposes that this clefting is a distancing strategy to prevent an empty operator in SPEC/CP from binding the embedded subject position, to avoid forming an illicit chain with the matrix subject. |
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| ISSN: | 0039-3533 2154-428X |