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On Spanish comparative subdeletion constructions *
Author(s) -
Reglero Lara
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
studia linguistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.187
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1467-9582
pISSN - 0039-3193
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9582.2007.00133.x
Subject(s) - feature (linguistics) , inversion (geology) , distinctive feature , sentence , focus (optics) , linguistics , computer science , mathematics , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , philosophy , physics , geology , paleontology , structural basin , optics
. In this paper I explore the two strategies (i.e. Inversion and Obligatory Gapping) allowed in Spanish to form comparative subdeletion constructions (cf. Knowles 1984, Price 1990 and Rivero 1981). I show that the two strategies are related and derive from the same source. That is, the NP containing the quantity term must undergo overt movement to check a strong focus feature in the Inversion Strategy. If the feature is not checked, the derivation can still be rescued by deleting the strong feature in PF. Once the strong feature is erased from the derivation, the resulting grammatical sentence constitutes an instance of the Obligatory Gapping Strategy.