The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová

d. Maruška včera dala || dětem knihu.
e. Maruška včera dala dětem || knihu.
As we can see, there are four possible partitions available. I argue that the partition
positions correspond to positions in which the G-operator may be inserted. Thus, we now
have a formal tool to understand the basic word order pattern. I argue that the exact position
of the G-operator (or of several G-operators in case there is a terminating point somewhere
in the structure) depends on what is presupposed. In other words, the insertion of a G-
operator is regulated by the Maximize Presupposition maxim. If the wrong position is
selected, either some given element will not be marked as presupposed or a new element
will be incorrectly marked as presupposed.
To see this in more detail, let’s consider a scenario in which the subject and the adverb
are given, the rest is new (Tell me what Mary did yesterday.), (83-c). The relevant reference
set is included in the evaluation table in (84).
(84) Evaluation of the reference set of (83):
Reference set SYNTAX INTERPRETATION
Mary G yesterday gave children book ̌ fails
Mary yesterday G gave children book ̌ ̌
Mary yesterday gave G children book ̌ fails
Mary yesterday gave children G book ̌ fails
Since there is no G-movement, all candidates are syntactically well-formed. There is, however,
only one candidate which does well with respect to the Maximize presupposition
maxim. The felicitous candidate is the candidate with a G-operator adjoined immediately
below the adverb. Only this position guarantees that both the subject and the adverb will
be presupposed and the rest of the clause will be understood as new. Notice that setting
up the evaluation with respect to the Maximize Presupposition maxim is crucial here. For
the structure to be correctly interpreted it is crucial to know what presupposition is to be
matched. There is nothing in the syntactic module that would have direct relevance for the
position of the G-operator.
To conclude, we have seen in detail the evaluation of several cases involving G-movement
which were set up to test the hypothesis that to choose the right derivation it is enough to
refer to the G-operator and to the Maximize presupposition maxim. As far as syntax is
concerned, any well-formed derivation is possible as far as it is licensed by semantics (and
pragmatics). Thus by modifying the syntactic system we do not lose anything. The question
is whether we gained something in empirical coverage.
4.4 The G-operator and coordination
In the previous section we have seen that the modified system copes well with the G-
movement data.The question is whether the system can account for coordination facts as
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