This paper examines the raising constructions of Haitian Creole both from a descriptive and from a theoretical point of view. Descriptively, the constructions involve a local relation between the non-thematic subject position of a verbal predicate and the thematic subject position of an embedded tensed sentence, which is occupied by an overt pronominal copy in place of the expected trace and manifests the thematic dependency characteristic of well-understood forms of raising. The theoretical interest of these constructions concerns the theory of A-chains and predication. Despite the fact that Haitian Creole raising appears to manifest resumptive pronouns in A-chains, I argue that a revision of the standard A-chain theory is not warranted. Haitian Creole raising constructions manifest both NP movement and predication in the sense of Williams (1980, 1986). I provide evidence supporting the existence of clausal predicates, small clauses, and A-chains conceived in terms of NP movement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Belletti, Adriana: 1988, ‘The Case of Unnaccusatives’, Linguistic Inquiry 19, 1–34.
Browning, Margaret: 1987, Null Operator Constructions, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Chomsky, Noam: 1981, Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.
Chomsky, Noam: 1986, Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use, Praeger, New York.
Cinque, Guillermo: 1986, ‘Bare Quantified NPs and the Notion of Operator at S-structure’, Revista Di Grammatica Generativa 11, 9–10.
Couquaux, Daniel: 1981, ‘French Predication and Linguistic Theory’, in R. May and J. Koster (eds), Levels of Syntactic Representation, Foris Publication, Dordrecht, Holland, pp. 33–64.
Dechaine, Rose-Marie and Victor Manfredi: 1988, ‘Binding Domains in Haitian’, ms., U. Mass Amherst.
De Graff, Michel: 1991, ‘Is Haitian Creole a Pro-drop Language?’, ms., University of Pensylvania, to appear in Francis Byrne and John Holm, The Atlantic Meets the Pacific: Papers from the Society for Pidgin & Creole Linguistics, John Benjamin, Amsterdam.
Deprez, Viviane: 1989, On the Typology of Syntactic Positions and the Nature of Chains, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Deprez, Viviane: 1990, ‘The Pattern of Complementizer Agreement’, paper presented at the GISSL conference in Girona, Spain.
Deprez, Viviane: 1991, ‘Wh-movement: Adjunction and Substitution’, to appear in Proceedings of WCFFL X.
Deprez, Viviane and Marie-Thérèse Vinet: 1991, ‘On the Categorial Status of se in Haitian Creole’, paper given at the annual meeting of the Society for Pidgin & Creole Linguistics, Chicago.
Guasti, Maria-Teresa: 1988, ‘La Pseudo Relative et Les Phenomenes d'Accords’, ms. to appear in Rivista di Grammatica Generativa.
Haïk, Isabelle: 1986, The Syntax of Operators, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Haïk, Isabelle: 1991, ‘Predicate Clauses’, ms., UQUAM.
Kayne, Richard: 1984, Connectedness and Binary Branching, Foris, Dordrecht.
Kayne, Richard: 1989, ‘Facets of Romance Past-Participle Agreement’, in Paola Benincà (ed.), Dialect Variation and the Theory of Grammar, Foris, Dordrecht, pp.
Koopman, Hilda: 1982, ‘Les questions’, in Claire Lefebvre et al. (eds.), Syntaxe de l'Haitien, Karoma, Ann Arbor, pp. 204–233.
Lappin, Shalom: 1984, ‘Predication and Raising’, in Proceedings of NELS 14, Mass, Amherst, pp. 236–252.
Lefebvre, Claire and Hilda Koopman: 1982, ‘Pu: marqueur de Mode, Preposition et Complementeur’, in Claire Lefebvre et al. (eds.), Syntaxe de l'Haitien, Karoma, Ann Arbor, pp. 64–87.
Lumsden, John: 1990, ‘On the Argument Structure of Certain Haitian Predicates — Rete and Posib’, ms., UQUAM (to appear in Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages).
Massam, Diane: 1985, ‘Case Theory and the Projection Principle’, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Massam, Diane: 1989, ‘Predicate Argument Structure in Haitian Creole’, La Revue Quebecoise de Linguistique 18, 95–130.
Pesetsky, David: 1982, ‘Complementizer-trace Phenomena and the Nominative Island Condition’, The Linguistic Review 1, 297–343.
Philippaki-Warbuton, I.: 1987, ‘The Theory of Empty Categories and the Pro-Drop Parameter in Modern Greek’, Journal of Linguistics 23, 289–318.
Postal, Paul: 1974, On Raising, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Ritter, Elizabeth: 1991, ‘Deplacement de NP en Haitien, Oui ou Non’, Recherches Linguistiques 20, 156–189.
Rivero, Maria-Luisa: 1986, ‘Barriers and NP Movement’, ms., University of Ottawa.
Ruwet, Nicholas: 1982, Grammaire des Insultes et Autres Etudes, Edition du Seuil, Paris.
Sterlin, Marie-Denise: 1988, Les differentes caracteristiques de Pou en Creole Haitien, Masters Thesis, Sherbroke University.
Stowell, Timothy: 1985, ‘Null Operators and the Theory of Proper Government’, ms., UCLA.
Taraldsen, Knut Tarald: 1982, ‘Som and the Binding Theory’, ms., published in Lars Hellan and Kirsty Koch Christensen, Topics in Scandinavian Syntax, Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 149–185.
Vinet, Marie-Thérèse: 1989, ‘Expletives in Haitian Creole’, ms., to appear in La Revue Quebecoise de Linguistique, Montreal.
Williams, Edwin: 1980 ‘Predication’, Linguistic Inquiry 11, 203–308.
Williams, Edwin: 1983, ‘Against Small Clause’, Linguistic Inquiry 14, 287–308.
Williams, Edwin: 1986, ‘NP trace in Theta Theory’, ms., UMass, Amherst.
Williams, Edwin: 1987, ‘Implicit Arguments, the Binding Theory and Control’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 5, 151–180.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deprez, V. Raising constructions in Haitian Creole. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 10, 191–231 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133812
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133812