A- and A-bar dependencies and minimalism in movement theories: Scrambling and binding

Soon-Hyuck Park

Ph.D. Dissertation, 1994

Abstract

In the past several years, the concept of 'economy' in generative grammar has developed into so-called 'minimalism'. This new approach is eventually designed to prohibit unnecessary steps and symbols in derivations and representations, and avoid redundancies in the language faculty. More recently, there has been an attempt to reduce linguistic representations to only two interface levels, articulatory-perceptual (Phonetic Form, henceforth PF) and conceptual-intentional (Logical Form, henceforth LF), attributing D- and S-structure effects to LF ones (cf. Kitahara (1992), Watanabe (1992), Chomsky (1993), Lasnik (1993), and Yang, D-W (1993a, b), among others). The purpose of this dissertation is (i) to examine the minimalist approach, (ii) to explore it in Korean, and (iii) with its consequences, to analyze two syntactic phenomena, scrambling and binding. These works will be implemented, largely based on a reformulation of the definition of A- and A$/sp/prime$-position with respect to functional categories and V-raising. Chapter 1 will, thus, introduce some basic theories and assumptions, discuss their theoretical implications, and examine how they work in Korean. Armed with these observations, chapter 2 & 3 will discuss scrambling effects and anaphoric binding effects, respectively. The goal of these two chapters is to offer an alternative analysis by identifying the landing site of these movement phenomena under the minimalist approach and/or a slightly different version of it.