Weak Connectivity in (Un)bounded Dependency Constructions

This paper argues that various kinds of displaced structures in English should be licensed by a more explicitly formulated type of rule schema in order to deal with what is called weak connectivity in English. This paper claims that the filler and the gap site cannot maintain the total identity of features but a partial overlap since the two positions need to obey the structural forces that come from occupying respective positions. One such case is the missing object construction where the subject fillers and the object gaps are to observe requirements that are imposed on the respective positions. Others include passive constructions and topicalized structures. In this paper, it is argued that the feature discrepancy comes from the different syntactic positions in which the fillers are assumed to be located before and after displacement. In order to capture this type of mismatch, syntactically relevant features are handled separately from the semantically motivated features in order to deal with the syntactically imposed requirements.