Abstract
An important issue, but one seldom made explicit in recent syntactic work, concerns the flexibility of the computational system. Is each grammatical relation established in a unique structural configuration, or are grammatical relations structurally underdetermined in that they can hold between elements in different configurations? On the latter view, for which we will argue in this study, grammatical relations are not rigid but flexible.
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Notes
For ease of exposition, we will often use familiar terminology when we refer to thematic relations. So, we may say that VP is the domain for Θ-role assignment. This does not mean that we assume that Θ-roles are assigned in syntax, but rather that the procedures connecting syntax and semantics are such that only elements contained in VP can be mapped onto the internal argument functions of the verb.
At first glance, one might circumvent this conclusion by allowing movement from a case position to a case position. This would imply, however, that the movement chain receives two Θ-roles: an unfortunate result, since raising to Θ-positions is generally ruled out.
Where we are interested in basic word order, we use embedded clauses for Dutch, since the verb raises to C in Dutch main clauses.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Neeleman, A., Weerman, F. (1999). Prologue. In: Flexible Syntax. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 47. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4289-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4289-2_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7199-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4289-2
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