Moving heads to specifiers: Evidence from Mandarin multiple pre-subject modals

Based on a hitherto neglected set of multiple pre-subject modal sentences, this article offers a novel syntactic account of Mandarin modals whereby the derivation of pre-subject modal sentences involves Internal Merge of modals to specifiers of the left-peripheral focus projection, and discusses new...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Natural language and linguistic theory 2024-02, Vol.42 (1), p.247-272
Main Authors: Lai, Jackie Yan-Ki, Li, Haoming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Grammatical subject
Linguistics
Mandarin
Modality (Semantic)
Morphology
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Philosophy of Language
Social Sciences
Syntactic movement
Syntax
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Summary:Based on a hitherto neglected set of multiple pre-subject modal sentences, this article offers a novel syntactic account of Mandarin modals whereby the derivation of pre-subject modal sentences involves Internal Merge of modals to specifiers of the left-peripheral focus projection, and discusses new problems facing a traditional head-movement analysis and the existing XP-movement accounts. Our proposal lends novel support to recent claims that “true” syntactic head movement targets specifier positions.
ISSN:0167-806X
1573-0859
DOI:10.1007/s11049-023-09579-0