Left or Right? A View from the Kwa Periphery

Conclusion

This paper shows that the Gungbe C-domain consists of a highly articulated structure that can be accounted for if we assume the split-C hypothesis. In this respect, I show that each of the features that are traditionally associated with the C-system is expressed in Gbe by a marker. Each marker is the property of a head (i.e. Inter°, Top°, Foc° Spf°, Fin°) that projects within the C-system and whose specifier hosts the corresponding fronted element. In this regard, the Gbe markers that occur to the left edge and those which occur to the right edge are considered properties of the left periphery. The distributive differences between the C-type markers therefore reduce to the movement types that they require. The markers that occur to the left allow for cyclical leftward movement of the attractee, while those that occur to the right trigger snowballing movement, that is, successive pied-piping of bigger chunks that include the attractee.