Within feature geometry, different claims have been made about the range, unity and location of manner features with little support for a Manner node as a unit of subsegmental structure. The issue is reconsidered, drawing on evidence of interacting error patterns in the developing systems of three young children acquiring English. The results reveal that obstruent stops and glides can serve as targets of assimilation when the triggering features are [continuant], [nasal], or [approximant], but also block as targets under superficially similar circumstances. It is argued that these three features are dependents of the same node, namely Manner, and that default features must be permitted to be both specified and underspecified underlyingly.

Contrary to Rivero & Terzi's (1995) claim that morphological mood and logical mood correlate one-to-one in Spanish imperatives, verbs in imperative sentences in all dialects of Spanish have obligatory non-imperative morphology more often than not. For example, the morphology of the verb in the imperative hágalo ‘do it’ is not imperative but subjunctive. A satisfactory account of semantic, syntactic, and morphological mismatches in Spanish imperatives must appeal to a Morphology module of grammar; real explanation is beyond the reach of purely syntactic analysis.

The sequence make the claim that S has certain syntactic properties which indicate the presence of some sort of complex predicate, previously suggested to be a Light Verb Construction (LVC) or a reanalysis of N and V to a complex V. I consider and reject both these proposals, and propose an alternative structure which is still a type of complex predicate. Adopting the Locality framework of Manzini (1992, 1994), I show that a syntactic account of extractions from make the claim follows straightforwardly. I also show that extraction from make the claim is distinct from extraction from indefinites.

This paper informally outlines a Labelled Deductive System for on-line language processing. Interpretation of a string is modelled as a composite lexically driven process of type deduction over labelled premises forming locally discrete databases, with rules of database inference then dictating their mode of combination. The particular LDS methodology is illustrated by a unified account of the interaction of wh-dependency and anaphora resolution, the so-called ‘cross-over’ phenomenon, currently acknowledged to resist a unified explanation. The shift of perspective this analysis requires is that interpretation is defined as a proof structure for labelled deduction, and assignment of such structure to a string is a dynamic left-right process in which linearity considerations are ineliminable.

The first concern of this article is an analysis of locative sentences in the Iberian Romances. It is argued that both the existential (〈HAVE〉) and the stative (〈BE〉) construction derive from a single abstract verb. Their differences are based in the presence vs. the absence of an incorporation process over an otherwise identical lexical structure. The second topic of the paper is a study of the behavior of pronominal clitics within these sentences. It is observed that while Catalan has a rich paradigm of clitics (accusative, dative, locative, partitive), languages like Asturian, Galician and certain Spanish dialects resort to a ‘recycling’ strategy in order to palliate the deficiencies of their clitic paradigms. In this respect, we will show how accusative clitics are used as partitive, locative, and even subject clitics. We also propose some of the principles which constrain the application of this strategy. Finally, an Appendix is devoted to certain uses of the accusative clitics as modal markers, also within locative sentences. These uses are closely related with the behavior of certain clitics in Northern Italian dialects.

Serbo-Croatian (SC) is a language without articles, probably the only category of speech that has uncontroversially and crosslinguistically been argued to occupy the head of the Determiner Phrase (DP). This paper argues that even SC, a language without articles, projects a DP on top of NPs in argument positions. The strongest evidence comes from noun/pronoun asymmetries, where the pronouns precede, and nouns follow, certain intensifying adjectives. Assuming that these adjectives occupy a fixed syntactic position, the conclusion must be that pronouns occupy a structurally higher position than nouns. Since the evidence of such asymmetries is extremely sparse in the data, the children presumably cannot rely on them to conclude that there is a DP in SC. Since there are also no articles in SC, children have virtually no evidence of the existence of a DP. It must be then that the projection of DPs is a universal property, independent of the presence of the lexical item which solely occupies the head of the projection. Morphological properties of SC pronouns and adjectives actually support the existence of more than just one functional projection in the noun phrase in SC. The paper derives Greenberg's universal 43, which states that pronouns are more likely to have (gender) morphology than nouns, by arguing that pronouns move (overtly) through more functional projections than nouns, and ultimately land in D.

This paper argues that intonational phrasing in English is subject to two constraints formulated purely in terms of surface syntax. The first applies to all headed structures, and the second to all structures of coordination. It is claimed that these constraints account for the facts more adequately than Selkirk's Sense Unit Condition. Several problematic types of constructions are discussed in this context, including structures with parentheticals. In addition to the syntax, accent placement is also shown to be relevant to intonational phrasing. Finally, proposals are made for the incorporation of the syntactic constraints in an HPSG grammar of English.

Noam Chomsky,The Minimalist Program. (Current Studies in Linguistics 28.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. Pp. 420.

The Minimalist Program, by Noam Chomsky, is a collection of four articles, ‘The Theory of Principles and Parameters’ (written with Howard Lasnik, 13–127), ‘Some notes on Economy of Derivation and representation’ (129–166), ‘A Minimalist Program for linguistic theory’ (167–217), and ‘Categories and transformations’ (219–394). The first three articles have appeared elsewhere, and are reprinted here with minor revisions. The fourth was circulated in manuscript form earlier in 1995 and is commonly referred to as ‘Chapter four’. The volume opens with an ‘Introduction’ (1–11) and closes with a general bibliography and an index (395–420).

The work collected here is based on material presented by Chomsky, and discussed by participating students, faculty, and visitors, in Chomsky's fall term lecture-seminars at MIT in the period of 1986 through 1994. For those who have ever wanted to attend these class lectures, but were never in the position to, this is a must read. The MIT Press is to be commended for having made this collection available in such an exemplary inexpensive volume.