Locative Inversion, Unergatives, and Backward Control

It is usually accepted that if a verb assigns an external theta role, it does not allow Locative Inversion (LI). However, this paper claims that even unergatives permit LI if (i) they assign an internal theta role as well as an external theta role, (ii) the two theta roles are assigned to the identi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inKorea Journal of English Language and Linguistics Vol. 24; pp. 155 - 174
Main Author Kim, Kwang-sup
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 한국영어학회 2024
Subjects
영어와문학
heavy inversion
locative inversion
labeling
backward ellipsis
backward control
quotative inversion
light inversion
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ISSN1598-1398
2586-7474
DOI10.15738/kjell.24..202403.155

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Summary:It is usually accepted that if a verb assigns an external theta role, it does not allow Locative Inversion (LI). However, this paper claims that even unergatives permit LI if (i) they assign an internal theta role as well as an external theta role, (ii) the two theta roles are assigned to the identical phrases that form the relation Copy in the sense of Chomsky (2021), and (iii) the external argument undergoes backward ellipsis. In this approach, deletion of the higher copy follows from Chomsky’s (2013, 2015) Labeling Algorithm. Chomsky (2013, 2015) claims that the constituent in SPEC-v* gives rise to labeling failure, which can be fixed if it raises to SPEC-T. This study shows that subject raising is not the only way to remove the constituent in SPEC- v*. It can be deleted when it forms the relation Copy with an internal argument. In short, Unergative Inversion as well as Unaccusative Inversion is permitted in English, and it is a kind of backward control in the sense that the higher copy undergoes backward ellipsis. KCI Citation Count: 0
ISSN:1598-1398
2586-7474
DOI:10.15738/kjell.24..202403.155