Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 8the subject of the lower clause and when the lower clause is non-finite there is no
potential case-assigner within that clause either, hence the subject must move to a
position where it can get case. Thus, raising is another type of case-motivated
movement. The subject can move across any number of clauses as long as they are
non-finite or contain a raising predicate and have an available subject position.
Q6 Case-motivated movements are: subject-movement, movement of objects in
passive structures, movement of the internal argument of an unaccusative verb, raising.
Q7 The Extended Projection Principle requires that clauses must have subjects.
Pleonastic subjects (it and there) are made to appear by the EPP when the clausal
complement of a raising verb is finite, hence there is no reason for the subject of the
lower clause to move since it can get case-marked in its position in the lower clause. In
such cases a pleonastic subject (an element that does not require a theta-role) is
inserted into the structure to satisfy the EPP.
Q8 PRO is an empty (unpronounced) DP. It can only appear in the subject position
of non-finite clauses, not elsewhere (i.e. as subject of a finite clause or object or object
of a preposition). The subject positions of non-finite clauses where it can occur are
positions to which Null Case is assigned. PRO can have arbitrary reference when it is
interpreted as having some generic referent. However, it can also be coreferent with a
subject or an object. In some contexts both arbitrary reference and obligatory
coreference to an antecedent are allowed at the same time, e.g. They discussed growing
a moustache – this could be interpreted either as growing a moustache in general or
them growing a moustache.
Q9 Control is the property of PRO that when its interpretation is not arbitrary, it
can take reference either from a subject or an object. Whether PRO is controlled by the
subject or the object is determined by the governing verb, thus there are so-called
subject control verbs, e.g. promise and object control verbs like ask (They asked him
PRO to leave – it is ’him’, the object of the main clause who will leave vs. They
promised him PRO to leave – it is the subject of the main clause who will leave).
Q10 Anaphors are reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, etc.) and reciprocal
pronouns (each other, one another). They must have an antecedent within some unit,
e.g. within a clause or DP that contains them and cannot refer outside it. On the other
hand a pronominal (him, her, etc) must refer outside the unit that contains them.
Q11 In derived nominals the –ing affix turns the verb into a noun and the unit
behaves like a noun syntactically. In gerunds the –ing element turns the verb into a
unit that has the external distribution of a nominal but the internal structure of it retains
verbal properties. With derived nominals the complement it takes is case-marked by
the preposition of while in gerunds no of-insertion is necessary, the complement of the
gerund is case-marked in the ordinary fashion verbs case-mark their complement DP.
Derived nominals can be pluralised and used with determiners while gerunds cannot
be pluralised and only tolerate what looks like a possessive determiner.