The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová

c. Bylo to myšleno jako útok proti této učitelce
was it though as attack against teacher
‘It was meant as an attack against this teacher.’
Consider now the example in (67). The example is offered here as a control showing that
in general there is no problem with having the unmodified form teacher as a continuation
of the discourse in (61). Crucially, in this example, G-movement is not required since there
is no new element asymmetrically c-commanding the DP učitelka ‘teacher’.
(67) Učitelka o diskusi (ale) nevěděla.
teacher about discussion but not-knew
‘However, the teacher did not know about the discussion.’
I argue that the reason why the non-modified DP in (62)–(66) is infelicitous as a continuation
of the context given in (61) is that the DP needs to be interpreted as given but it is in a
syntactic position from which it cannot undergo G-movement. Since there is no syntactic
operation that could achieve the desired semantic interpretation, inserting an element that
is lexically marked as given is the only option. 26 The generalization stating the relation
between pronouns and G-movement is given in (68).
(68) Generalization about syntactic distribution of pronouns
If α G is asymmetrically c-commanded by a new element and α G cannot move at
least once, then α G must be lexically given.
The above pattern provides an independent argument that G-movement is a last resort operation.
If there is no new element asymmetrically c-commanding α G , α G may be realized
as a full DP even if it is in a position from which it cannot move. It follows that an element
can be interpreted as given even if it does not undergo G-movement. Thus, we can
conclude that the purpose of G-movement cannot be to mark or license an element as given
(for example, by checking a G(iven) feature). There must be other tools to interpret an
element as given. In chapter 4 I will argue that the syntax-semantics interface does exactly
that.
If G-movement is a last resort operation, we predict that the restriction on specifiers
observed in (62)–(64) should disappear if the relevant specifier is the highest element in the
structure. As we can see in (69) this is indeed correct.
(69) Učitelovi žáci si totiž stěžovali na jeho učební metody.
teacher’s pupils REFL PART complained at his teaching methods
‘Students of the teacher complained about his teaching methods.’
Additional support for the argument that G-movement is a last resort operation comes
from coordinated DPs. If we assume the coordinate structure constraint (Ross, 1967), we
predict that a DP should not be able to move out from a coordination. Thus, a coordinated
given DP should be degraded, unless it is modified by a demonstrative pronoun. As we can
see in (70), this prediction is borne out.
26 Another option would be to choose a structure which allows G-movement to take place.
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