International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology

The International Promotion Agency of Culture Technology (국제문화기술진흥원)
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An Optimality-Theoretic Analysis of 'It'-Extraposition in English

  • Received : 2018.10.25
  • Accepted : 2018.11.08
  • Published : 2018.12.31
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Abstract

The Extraposition phenomenon in English has been analyzed mainly through two approaches: a derivational approach under the Principles & Parameters framework (P&P) and a representational approach under the early Minimalist framework (MP). The first one tries to understand the phenomenon as a result of the movement of a Big Subject first to the end of a sentence which is then followed by the insertion of an expletive 'it' to the empty Subject position. On the other hand, the second one tries to understand it by way of assuming a Big Subject originally base-generated at the end of a sentence which is followed by the insertion of an expletive 'it' to the empty Subject position. The two approaches, however, are not free from theoretical defects at all: the full derivational approach was under controversy in terms of (1) the failure of the Binding Theory and (2) its inability to suggest anything about the marginal reading issue. On the while, the representational approach has been argued (1) to violate the thematic hierarchy that should be kept in D-structure, and (2) to be also unable to suggest the slightest difference in marginal reading issue as the first one. In this paper I focus mainly on analyzing the 'It'-Extraposition phenomenon in the Optimality Theory. I will show that by way of (i) some newly developed constraints such as Subj., and AHSubj. and (ii) a constraint hierarchy of Subj.>>AHSubj., the controversies of 'It-Extraposition' such as (1) the analysis of construction and (2) the very closely related issue of 'marginal reading issue' can be explained properly.

Keywords

Tableau 1. Selection of an Optimal Candidate #1

E1GMBY_2018_v6n4_58_t0001.png 이미지

Tableau 3. Selection of an Optimal Candidate #3

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Tableau 4. Selection of an Optimal Candidate #4

E1GMBY_2018_v6n4_58_t0003.png 이미지

Tableau 2. Selection of an Optimal Candidate #2

E1GMBY_2018_v6n4_58_t0004.png 이미지

References

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  2. Chomsky, N., "Some Notes on the Economy of Derivation and Representation", in R. Freidin (ed), MITWPL 10, 1991.
  3. Prince, Alan and Paul Smolensky, Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar, Blackwell Publishers, (1993/2002/2004). Technical Report, Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science and Computer Science Department, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1993.
  4. Khym, H., "Selection of a Grammatical Subject in English Correlative Conjunction Phrases: An Optimality-Theoretic Approach", IJACT Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.43-50, 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17703/IJACT.2017.5.4.44
  5. Khym, H., "Revisiting Extraposition in the Optimality Theory", (forthcoming), 2018b.