Explanation and the Role of Weak Constituents
Kwang-sup Kim · 언어와 언어학 · 2023
This paper is concerned with the role of weak constituents in explanation. Merge is usually motivated by selection. This study shows that it is also triggered by weak constituents, which can be divided into three types: syntactically semantically and prosodically weak types. The syntactically weak constituents cannot project their label, the semantically weak constituents must have their antecedents, and the prosodically weak constituents must have their hosts. It will be claimed that all the three types of weak constituents require Merge in order to complement their weakness. This claim is shown to shed light on various peculiarities, including the EPP effects, the peculiarities of there-constructions, the distribution of it, and the peculiar patterns of anaphoric constituents like the null operator, PRO, and anaphors.