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Head-final effects and the nature of modification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2004

JOSÉ LUIS GONZÁLEZ ESCRIBANO
Affiliation:
Universidad de Oviedo

Abstract

In English and other languages, pre-modifiers must generally be head-final, whereas specifiers need not be, which suggests that modifiers are NOT specifiers. The theory of modification defended here rests on a unified version of Merge triggered by satisfaction of selection features under a Priority constraint and claims that the label is dynamically determined by the object containing unsatisfied features AFTER Merge or Move. ‘Adjuncts’ do NOT exist in it, for modification reduces to complementation. Modifiers are just additional predicates, modifieds are their complements or specifiers, depending on the previous structure of the modifier, and correct scope and surface order, including head-final effects and absence thereof, follow from Kayne's Linear Correspondence Axiom without stipulations like the Head-Final Filter. Empirically and conceptually, this theory compares favourably with major alternatives like Kayne's, Chomsky's, Cinque's or Ernst's, and perhaps deserves consideration within a minimalist programme.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the Editor Robert D. Borsley and the anonymous referees of JL for important criticism and suggestions that have considerably changed the original manuscript. The Editor's perceptiveness, in particular, has revealed important obscurities in the original proposal and his criticism has gently induced me to find technically more precise solutions to several key problems. For the remaining defects, responsibility is exclusively mine.