Deriving Contiguity
Norvin Richards
January 2017
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003289
In Richards (2016), I develop a theory of the cross-linguistic distribution of overt movement, which depends partly on a particular approach to the mapping of syntactic structure on prosodic structure. In this paper I explore the possibility that the special conditions on the prosody of structures containing Agree or selection relations that I posit in Richards (2016) can be eliminated; all that is necessary is a particular version of the general mapping of syntactic structures onto prosodic structures which is offered in Match Theory (Selkirk 2009, 2011, Elfner 2012, 2015, Clemens 2014, Bennett, Elfner, and McCloskey 2016), together with independently supported proposals about the syntactic representation of Agree relations. In the end, I claim, the distribution of overt movement may follow from the fact that the mapping of syntax onto prosody begins during the narrow-syntactic derivation, rather than after the derivation has concluded.