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The hidden side of clausal complements

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Abstract

I propose that a moved clausal complement must involve a DP structure headed by a covert determiner. This proposal explains the fact that the base-generated position of a moved clausal complement must show properties of DPs even though the moved constituent appears to be a CP. I argue that the necessity of the DP structure comes from properties of an independently motivated mechanism for interpreting structures involving a movement dependency under the copy theory of movement. Together with a particular theory of counter-cyclic merger, the proposed analysis also captures (anti-)reconstruction effects exhibited by movement of a clausal complement.

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  1. College of Engineering, Nihon University, 1 Nakagawara, Tokusada, Tamura-machi, Koriyama-shi, Fukushima-ken, 963-8642, Japan

    Shoichi Takahashi

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Takahashi, S. The hidden side of clausal complements. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 28, 343–380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-010-9091-3

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