Glossaryexceptional verb: verbs selecting not a CP but an IP complement when their
complement is clausal. The most typical representative is believe, which is
an exceptional verb when it takes an infinitival complement (when its
clausal complement is finite, it is a full CP).
existential there-construction: a structure where there is used as an expletive,
introducing a nominal expression as in There were three girls waiting for
me. In such structures the emphasis is on the existence (or non-existence) of
the situation/the participants.
exocentric structure: one that contains no element that can have the same function as
the whole phrase, it appears to have properties that are independent from the
elements it contains. E.g. small clauses for a long time were assumed to
be exocentric structures.
experiencer: one of the thematic or theta-roles where the argument experiences
some physical or mental state, like Mary in Mary was afraid of dogs. The
experiencer theta-role is assigned in the specifier position of vP,
similarly to the agent role. If both an agent and an experiencer argument
are selected by the verb there are two vPs projected and the experiencer
occupies the specifier position of the lower vP.
expletive subject: a subject without reference, its presence is merely required by the
EPP. Expletive subjects have no theta-roles but they do receive Case
from finite Inflection. The expletives in the English language are there
introducing nominal expressions as in There lived a cruel dragon in the
forest and it introducing clauses as in It occurred to me too late that he
had not been invited. Both there and it have referential uses too!
extended projection: a Verb Phrase has an extended projection into IP and CP
in a clause. Similarly to it a noun phrase has an extended projection
into DP which may further project into a PP.
Extended Projection Principle (EPP): every clause must have a (visible or
invisible) subject.
external argument: the subject, occupying a position external to the verb, [Spec, IP]
extraction site: the position from which elements move.
extraposition: a constituent (PP, CP) moved from the phrase where it belongs
to a sentence final position: The rumour t has been circulating [that we will
have an oral exam this semester].
[±F]: one of the three basic binary features on which all categories can be
defined. With the help of these features we can explain why we have the
categories that we do and also describe how these categories are related.
With the help of the three binary features we can predict what kinds of
categories are possible in human language, we can give an exclusive list of
them. [±F] is a feature used to distinguish between functional and thematic
categories. [–F] categories have thematic content and [+F] categories do
not. The categories with [+F] feature are the following: inflections,
complementisers, determiners and degree adverbs. Certain
categories are unspecified for the [±F] feature, see underspecification.
finite clause: a clause containing a finite verb.