The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová
The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová
The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová
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is not given but its movement is necessary to facilitate G-movement <strong>of</strong> some other given<br />
element.<br />
As a consequence, we predict that the verb may appear on either side <strong>of</strong> the partition<br />
between given and new. 17 If the head itself undergoes G-movement, the partition follows<br />
the head. 18 If the head moves in order to facilitate G-movement, the partition precedes the<br />
head. Thus we predict the pattern to be as in (34).<br />
(34) a. O V || S ←− head undergoes G-movement<br />
b. O || V S ←− head facilitates G-movement<br />
<strong>The</strong> pattern is indeed correct. Example (32-c) is not only a felicitous answer to the question<br />
And what about the lollipop? What happened to the lollipop? but it is also a felicitous<br />
answer to the question Who found the lollipop?, as in (35).<br />
(35) a. Who found the lollipop?<br />
b. Lízátko našla || malá holčička.<br />
lollipop.Acc found little girl.Nom<br />
‘A little girl found the lollipop.’<br />
In other words, the semantic ambiguity that we found with a basic word order repeats itself<br />
on a smaller scale here as well. Even though we know that because <strong>of</strong> G-movement <strong>of</strong><br />
the object, the object is given (translated as the lollipop), we cannot conclude anything<br />
about the status <strong>of</strong> the verb. <strong>The</strong> reason is that the head might have undergone either G-<br />
movement, or it might have moved only in order to facilitate G-movement. <strong>The</strong> suggested<br />
derivation is given in (36). For now I leave open the question <strong>of</strong> the exact landing site <strong>of</strong><br />
G-movement. In the following graphs, the landing site is marked as ?P.<br />
(36) a. VP<br />
V<br />
Object<br />
b. vP<br />
Subject<br />
vP<br />
v-V<br />
VP<br />
V<br />
Object<br />
17 Notice that the verb can be either the rightmost element in the given part, or it can follow the given part<br />
but it can never intervene between two given elements. Thus if, for example, both the subject and the object<br />
are given the resulting order is either SOV or OSV, depending on other factors such as topicalization.<br />
18 I put aside for now what determines the relative order <strong>of</strong> the given elements. I will address this question<br />
in chapter 3.<br />
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