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Abstract
Albanian, Bulgarian, Modern Greek, and Rumanian share the following clause structure: [CP C0 [MP M0 [T/AgrP T/Agr0 [AuxP Aux0 [VP V0]]]]]. In Balkan clauses, the phrase headed by the complementizer takes a phrase headed by an invariant modal particle as complement. The Tense/Agreement complex, the auxiliaries, and the main verb follow MP. In addition, Balkan languages share interesting varieties of X0-movement for non-finite verbs, with theoretical consequences for principles of UG. In Bulgarian and Rumanian, (Long) Head-movement raises V0 to C0 across the finite Aux0, as inPročel sŭm knigata ‘I have read the book’; such structures comply with the Empty Category Principle via Relativized Minimality, and escape the Head Movement Constraint. In Albanian, Greek, and Rumanian, Head-movement places the imperative V0 in C0, as inGhrápse to ‘Write it!’. Albanian imperatives show Long Head Movement and comply with the ECP like other LHM patterns in cases where the V-stem precedes the clitic and the affix in that order:Tregoj-i-ni ‘Tell him!’. Greek and Rumanian Gerunds display Head-movement to M0, as inI Maria kratóndas to ‘Mary holding it’. In similar Albanian constructions M0 is filled, and this prevents V0-raising, as inPashë [Brixhiden [M0duke]kenduar] ‘I saw Brigitte singing’.
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Authors and Affiliations
Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
María Luisa Rivero
- María Luisa Rivero
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Research for this paper was partially subsidized by Grants 410-88-0101 and 410-91-0178 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and by the European Science Foundation under the Eurotyp Project. The first version of this paper was entitled ‘The structure of IP and V-movement in the languages of the Balkans’ and was circulated in September 1988. The present version has benefited from later joint work with José Lema on the topic of LHM, and from the comments of several very careful readers who I thank, but who are not responsible for the solutions I propose for the interesting issues they raised. For Albanian, I thank Noreen Atkins for obtaining Tosk (= standard Albanian) examples from a northern informant and for discussion of many aspects of their grammar. For Bulgarian, I thank Emil Savov and Mila Dimitrova Vulchanova. For Modern Greek, I thank Erató Kostópoulou (northern Greece) for judgments and excellent help. For Rumanian, Rodica Ionescu's assistance has been invaluable; her origin is Transylvanian. For MG I use a rough phonetic transcription, withdh, gh, andth standing for fricatives.
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Rivero, M.L. Clause structure and V-movement in the languages of the Balkans.Nat Lang Linguist Theory12, 63–120 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992746
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