The A'-Quadrangle: From Ewe Dialects to UG (Selikem Gotah)

 Selikem Gotah's doctoral dissertation on Ewe syntax.

https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/008408

Abstract:

"This dissertation argues for an Ā-quadrangle, which unifies the treatment of wh-questions and relative clauses, following extant proposals for the cross-linguistic analysis of wh-questions (Cable 2007, 2010). The Ā-quadrangle makes a case for a subsystem of Universal Grammar. Exploring some Ā-phenomena in Ewe through the lens of micro-comparative syntax (Kayne 1996, 2005), the dissertation argues that the core elements in the syntax of wh-questions and relative clauses in three dialects of Ewe are related to one another in a principled way, where elements relatively farther away from wh-words and relativized DPs, i.e. focus markers and the relative particle, are the outer elements and those closer to them, i.e. the wh-particle ka and relative pronouns, are the inner elements of the Ā-quadrangle. It is demonstrated that the relation between the inner and outer elements of the quadrangle and wh-words and relativized DPs in the derivation of wh-questions and relative clauses is mediated by the Agree and EPP feature mechanisms (Chomsky 1995, 2000, 2001), where the outer elements are goals attracted by C heads to the left periphery. It is argued that focus movement, which is integral to wh-questions, and relativization involve the projection of a FocP and RelP within the extended projection of focused categories and relativized elements, where the focus and relative heads form a constituent with the focused categories and the relativized elements. The resulting larger constituent is attracted to the specifier of CP. The current proposal allows for interposition of focus markers and relative particles internal to the moved constituent. The proposal is empirically superior to the existing analysis of argument focus in Ewe (Badan & Buell 2012), which adopts Aboh's (2004) account for deriving focus movement in Gungbe, a sister Gbe language. Crucially, the dissertation postulates a principle of UG according to which Ā-movement entails an outer element, like FOC and REL, which is the goal for agreement with C. This outer element determines pied-piping. This principle holds for all I-languages. Languages that lack an overt outer element like FOC and REL have null outer elements."