Premium
Morphosyntax of Movement Dependencies in Haitian Creole
Author(s) -
Takahashi Shoichi,
GračaninYuksek Martina
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
syntax
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9612
pISSN - 1368-0005
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9612.2008.00108.x
Subject(s) - complementizer , creole language , linguistics , subject (documents) , movement (music) , object (grammar) , operator (biology) , phrase , computer science , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , syntax , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , repressor , transcription factor , gene , aesthetics , library science
. In Haitian Creole the lexical item ki shows up when a subject (but not an object) undergoes operator movement in wh ‐questions, clefts, and relative clauses. We argue that ki is a phonological reflex of agreement between the complementizer and a wh ‐phrase. More specifically, the complementizer is spelled out as ki if all its features are checked off by a single goal. We demonstrate that this is accomplished only when the operator is a subject.