The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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5. P pred in object gap constructions
.
5.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on two object gap constructions: The Tough Construction
(TC) shown in (1a), and the Object Purpose Clause (OPC) in (1b). The defining
property of these constructions is that the embedded constituent has a gap in object
position. The gap is obligatorily coindexed with an antecedent in the main clause; the
subject in the TC, and the internal argument of the verb in the OPC (Faraci 1974,
Fiengo and Lasnik 1974, Chomsky 1977, Browning 1987, Cinque 1990, Jones 1991,
among others). (As the identity and syntactic status of this gap are rather
controversial, I will mark it for now as e): 1
(1) a. ha-sefer i kaše li-kri’a e i
the-book [is] difficult to-reading
“The book is difficult to read.”
b. bart hevi et ha-oto i li-vdika e i
Bart brought Acc the-car to-examination
“Bart brought the car to examine.”
1 Additional object gap constructions are the Degree construction (for a brief discussion see Appendix
A), exemplified in (ia), and the Complex Adjectival construction in (ib), which is not discussed here.
(Among the object gap constructions only the TC and the Complex Adjectival constructions are
obligatory object gap constructions):
(i)
a. ha-te xam miday li-štiya
the-tea hot too to-drinking
“The tea is too hot to drink.”
b. ha-yalda yafa le-mar’e
the-girl pretty to-looks
“The girl is pretty to look at.”
The P-morpheme le- (‘to’) (and sometimes ke- (‘as’)) is used optionally in nominal and adjectival
Small Clauses (SC) selected by a certain group of ECM/Raising verbs (ii). These constructions differ in
many respects from the object gap constructions, and are discussed in Appendix B.
(ii) hu nexšav/haya le-yafe/balšan
he [is] considered/became to-pretty/linguist
“He is considered/became pretty/a linguist.”