Premium
Labeling Defective T *
Author(s) -
Sugimoto Yushi
Publication year - 2021
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/stul.12154
Subject(s) - predicate (mathematical logic) , merge (version control) , lexicon , minimalist program , linguistics , infinitive , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , grammar , programming language , verb , information retrieval
This paper proposes a new analysis of so‐called ‘defective T’ (a postulate originally discussed in Chomsky 2000, 2001) and seeks a label‐based theoretical explanation of phenomena associated with the distribution of subjects in infinitival clauses. I argue that we do not need to postulate ‘defective T’ as an element of the lexicon. Following Chomsky’s (2013, 2015) labeling approach, which investigates only finite clauses, I argue here that the subject of infinitive‐ to is pair‐merged structure and the associated predicate forms an {XP, YP} structure, which is unlabelable. To attain labeling, the subject position ([spec, TP]) in the infinitival clause moves out and the label of the resulting structure is the amalgam , which has no visible Spec (violating EPP). As a consequence, we eliminate the Merge‐over‐Move principle.