Adverbs in Strange Places. On the Syntax of Adverbs in Dutch
Sjef Barbiers
September 2017
 

This paper discusses four Dutch constructions in which adverbs occur in unexpected, marked sentence positions: (i) Adverbs in the embedded clause that must be interpreted in the matrix clause; (ii) Adverbs in the matrix clause that can be interpreted in the embedded clause; (iii) Extraposed adverbs; (iv) Predicate adverbs used as Sentence adverbs, requiring adverb repair. These phenomena provide novel evidence for the Cinque hierarchy (Cinque 1999), for a syntactic distinction between sentence adverbs and predicate adverbs (Jackendoff 1972) and for an intraposition analysis of adverb extraposition (Barbiers 1995, 2001). Other findings are the syntactic defectivity of finite CP-complements of the bridge verb willen 'want. As opposed to CP-complements of denken 'think' such complements lack all layers of the Cinque hierarchy above ModVolition and they lack a ForceP layer. The analysis proposed in this paper explains why in the complement of denken 'think' only speech act adverbs can take matrix scope, while in the complement of willen 'want' only volitional adverbs can take matrix scope. It also explains why the types of adverbs that can raise overtly depend on the type of matrix bridge verb and why (partial) Wh-doubling and Neg-raising are possible with matrix verb denken but not with matrix verb willen. Finally, it explains why sentence adverbs can be extraposed while predicate adverbs cannot, and why predicate adverbs used as sentence adverbs need to be augmented with a participle or with genoeg 'enough'.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/003670
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: Leiden
keywords: adverb lowering, adverb raising, adverb extraposition, adverb repair, cinque hierarchy, syntax
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