Mara Frascarelli (ed.), Phases of interpretation (Studies in Generative Grammar 91). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006. Pp. ix+390

• Published in: Journal of Linguistics Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 440 - 449
• Main Author: DEN DIKKEN, MARCEL
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2007
• Subjects: Generative grammar; Reviews
• ISSN: 0022-2267; 1469-7742
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022226707004653

Mara Frascarellis introduction, entitled Phases and interpretation, succinctly reviews the key tenets of phase theory, and raises several important questions posed by it, concerning (i) what counts as a phase, (ii) the quint-essential properties of phases (here Frascarelli echoes Chomsky in presenting propositionality on the meaning side and phonetic independence on the sound side as criterial properties of phases, and then goes on to conate the two in the puzzling statement that for CPs phonetic independence is obvious, since [sic] these objects are propositional units; 6), (iii) the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) and (indirect) feature-driven movement, and (iv) the parallelism between Complementiser and Determiner Phrases (CPs and DPs) and (the consequences of) the phasal status of the latter. [...]selection of a verbal innitive will trigger the IPP-eect. [...]when a verbal innitive is selected, the innitive raises to a lower position from which it cannot extract unless last-resort movement to SpecAspP were to take place. [...]perception verbs could alternatively select a gerund, with the derivation proceeding without last-resort movement (hence more economically); so, according to Hinterhlzl, the verbal-innitive-cum-IPP option is blocked with perception verbs whenever VP-topicalisation takes place. [...]the crux of Hinterhlzls analysis is that topicalisation of a verbal innitive is ungrammatical if a more economical derivation with a gerund (based on a dierent lexical array) is available. [...]Winfried Lechners paper, An interpretive eect of head movement, is an exemplary study of the syntaxsemantics interface, demonstrating meticulously that there is at least one instance of head movement that has semantic repercussions and thus must take place in narrow syntax, 447 JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS not in PF.