A Derivational Theory of Clause Type and the Unity of Movement
David Pesetsky (MIT)(3) Tamazight Berber anti-agreement (examples from Ouali 2006, 5, ex. (10)-(12))
subject agreement reduceda.
(full agreement)

Handout 1: A Derivational Theory of Clause Type

1. So many kinds of clauses
•
(1)

(2)

A puzzle: Why are there so many sizes of clause — not just full finite CPs but also clauses
missing all sorts of things in their C and T systems?
kinds of English clauses
a. full:
Mary thinks [that Sue is reading a book].
b. no overt C:
Mary thinks [Sue is reading a book].
c. that→for, no tense marking or agreement in T
Mary would be happy [for Sue to be reading a book].
d. no overt C, no tense marking or agreement in T
Mary believes [Sue to be reading a book].
e. no overt C, no tense marking or agreement in T
(and subject raised)
Mary seemed [ __ to be reading a book].
f. no overt C, no tense marking or agreement in T (and subject = PRO)Mary planned [PRO to be reading a book].
g. no overt C, no tense marking or agreement in T, -ing version(subject raised or PRO)Mary started [ __/PRO reading a book].
h. no overt C, no T at all
Mary saw [Sue read a book].
i. and more …!
German restructuring (Wurmbrand 1998; 2002): looks like bare VP"long passive"
weil [der Lastwagen und der Traktor] zu reparieren versucht wurden/*wurde
since [the truck and the tractor]-NOM to repair
tried
were/*wasmeaning: 'since somebody tried to repair the truck and the tractor'
but literally: 'since the truck and the tractor were tried to repair'b.

(reduced ageement)c.

(*full agreement)•Naïve observation: In all non-full-and-finite clauses, the subject is doing somethinginteresting.

•Bolder version of the conjecture: In all non-full clauses, the subject has moved.

Even when subject movement is not obvious #1: English that-less finite clauses•

Claim: In that-less finite complement clauses like (1b), the subject has moved from spec,TPto spec,CP (Pesetsky and Torrego 2001).

(4)

(5)

•

(6)

Conjecture: Not a special fact about adverbials, but a fact about the position of the subject,which is in spec,CP in that-less finite clauses — higher than any position where the adverbialsin (4) may occur:

handout 1/page 2(7)Adverbials that may precede that may also precede the subject in that-less finite
clauses (observation of Doherty 1997)

Part 1: Clause reduction due to dissimilation
2. Complementizer-trace effects
Subject/non-subject asymmetries (English)•

The "that-trace effect" in English(9) Ā-extraction of the local subject → *overt complementizer
Even when subject movement is not obvious: obligatory control infinitivals

a. *Who do you think [that __ met Sue]?

•b. ✓Who do you think [ __ met Sue]?

… where Landau argues, following earlier insights of Chierchia, that a semantically vacuous
minimal pronoun moves from spec,TP to spec,CP — creating a λ-expression denoting aproperty:(8) Mary tried [PRO C [__ to … ]](10) Ā-extraction of object or anything other than local subject → ✓overt
complementizera. ✓Who do you think [that Sue met __ ]?

Core proposal #1: Clauses smaller than full finite CPs are always syntactically derived — theirsmaller-than-full size a consequence of the subject moving. Clause-size differences are not partof what a clause is born with, but arise in the course of the derivation.

b. ✓Who do you think [ Sue met __]?

Core proposal#2: It is the creation of a specific configuration as a result of subject raising — astructurally adjacent T and C that have both attracted the same element — that triggers deletion ofelements of T or C or both: a dissimilation process (not unknown in syntax elsewhere).

What moving elements produce the effect?

Ingredients:• Conventional view of merge, probes, goals, EPP• a semi-conventional distribution of movement-triggering features• a specific version of the ban on "improper movement"• successive cyclicity requiring extraction from CP to always proceed via Spec,CP• the Dissimilation rule(11) Locative inversion shows the that-trace effect (Bresnan 1972)
In this room can be found the best examples of Minoan sculpture.
a. *In which room do you think [that __ can be found the best examples of Minoan
sculpture]?
b. ✓In which room do you think [ __ can be found the best examples of Minoan sculpture]?

A personal note:• Much of this material was first developed in work that I thought motivated a process of"Exfoliation" (deleting outer layers of a clause) — but Exfoliation now plays a very minor
role as a limiting case of dissimilation.
• It may (or may not) be interesting to discuss where I went wrong and why, as an object lessonin wrongness. Happy to do that if it is requested.

•Ā-extraction of any element that seems to satisfy the obligatory-subject requirement ofEnglish clauses ("EPP") behaves like (9)(12) Predicate inversion shows the that-trace effectEven more important than syntax is global warming.
a. *How much more important than syntax do you think [that __ is global warming]?
b. ✓How much more important than syntax do you think [ __ is global warming ]?

handout 1/page 3•

Ā-extraction of anything other than a local subject behaves like (10)(17)

Wolof (*l-a with LD subject extraction) (Martinović 2014)(13)

Extraction of a non-local subject: subject extraction does not produce a that-trace
effect in higher clausesa. ✓Who do you think [that they said [ __ met Sue]]?
b. ✓Who do you think [ they said [ __ met Sue]]?

(14) Extraction of a local high adjunct does not show the that-trace effecta. ✓Why did you say [that they met Sue __ ]?
(Huang 1983; Lasnik & Saito 1986)b. ✓Why did you say [they met Sue __ ]?
•Summary: the effect concerns extraction from an embedded clause of the pre-verbal phrasethat satisfies the subject requirement ("EPP") of that clause.

•(18) Russian (Pesetsky 1979)
a. %Kogotyxočeš', čtoby Maša
vstretila __?
who.ACC you.NOM want, that.SJN Maša.NOM meet.SJN.F.SG`Who do you want Masha to meet?'

Effect of fronting material between Spec,TP and Spec,CP(15) Material intervening between C and Spec,TP eliminates the that-trace effect(Bresnan, 1977, 194 fn. 6; Culicover 1993)
a. Sue met the man who Mary is claiming that [for all intents and purposes] __ was themayor of the city.
b. Bill, who Sue said that [to the rest of us] __ might seem a bit strange, turned out to bequite ordinary.

Ban on local subject extraction (like English) — but no C-omission rescue strategy

b. *Ktotyxočeš', čtoby __ vstretil
Mašu?
who.ACC you.NOM want, that.SJN meet.SJN.M.SG Maša.ACC'Who do you want to meet Masha?'(object extraction)(subject extraction)(19)(object extraction)(subject extraction)

3. Why should we care about the that-trace effect?
••

Versions of the effect are found in languages all over the globe — and never an opposite
asymmetry or other simple-to-describe variants.

•

The challenge: Why should the input data to the child just happen to be similar in thisfashion in unrelated speech communities — with the result that the same subject/non-subject
asymmetry is acquired by children growing up in them?

(20) Frencha. Qui penses-tu [que Marie a rencontré __]?
who think-you that Marie met'Who do you think Mary met?

C unpronounced when local subject extracted (like English):(16) Levantine Arabic (Kenstowicz 1983; 1989)a. ʔayy fusṭaan [Fariid kaal (innu) l-bint ištarat _ ]which dress Fariid said that the-girl bought'Which dress did Fariid say that the girl bought?'
b. ʔayy bint Fariid kaal [(*innu) __ ištarat l-fusṭaan]which girl Fariid said thatbought the dress'Which girl did Fariid say bought the dress?'

C takes an alternate form when subject extracted (like English)b. *Qui penses-tu [qu' __ a rencontré Marie]?
who think-you that has met
Marie'Who do you think met Mary?'(object extraction)(object extraction)(subject extraction)c. Qui penses-tu [qui __ a rencontré Marie]?
(subject extraction)•

Material intervening between C and Spec,TP cancels the that-trace effect (cf. (15))

handout 1/page 4(21)

Adverb intervention ameliorates que-trace effect (Bošković 2016)?Quelle étudiante crois-tu[que dans deux jours __ va partir?
which student believe-you that in two days
goes leave.INF'Which student do you believe that in two days is going to leave?'(25)a. PP arguably intervenes between C and subject
Wat denk je [dat in Den Haag (__)
zetelt]?
what think you C in the Hague
resides'What do you think is based in the Hague?'

Nupe
(22)

b. PP does not intervene??Wat denk je [dat __ zetelt in Den Haag]?
Adverb intervention ameliorates that-trace effect (Kandybowicz 2006)
Zèé Musa gàn [gànán pányi lèé __ nì enyà] o?
who Musa say COMP before PSTbeat drum O'Who did Musa say that a long time ago beat the drum?'c. not just an incompatibility of PP-over-V with subject extraction
Wat denk je [dat al sinds mensenheugenis zetelt in Den Haag]
what think you C since time immemorial resides in the Hague'What do you think has been based in the Hague since time immemorial?'

Dutch (Marcel den Dikken, p.c. circa 2000)(23) Object parsable as fronted → no that-trace effect (Dutch)
a. Subject extracted from below Spec,TP
Wie denk je [dat erkomt]?
who think you C EXPL comesb. Subject extracted from Spec,TP*Wie denk je [dat ___ komt]?
who think you thatcomesc

OK because the direct object has been fronted above Spec,TP?
✓Wie denk je dat dat (__) zag?
who think you C DEM
saw`Who do you think saw that?'(24) PP parsable as fronted → no that-trace effect(Dutch "PP-over-V")
a. PP arguably intervenes between C and subject?Wie denk je [dat aan het eten ( __ ) had gedacht]?
who think you C about the food
had thought'Who do you think had thought about the food?'b. PP does not intervene*Wie denk je [dat ___ had gedacht aan het eten]?

•"Poverty of the stimulus": The data actually available to children is too sparse to support
learning of the relevant contrasts (Philips 2013)•

And often, when a language fails to show a that-trace effect, we think we know why: theskipping strategy (Rizzi 1981; 2014)(26) Italian: apparent absence of that-trace effects
a. Chi pensi
che i linguisti hanno incontrato __?
who you.think C the linguists AUX.3PL met'Who do you think the linguists have met?'b. Chi pensi
che ha[ incontrato i linguisti ___ ]?
who you.think C AUX.3SG met
the linguists'Who do you think met the linguists?'
Argument:(27)

The "skipping strategy"
Rizzi (1982): the obligatory use of clitic ne diagnoses extraction directly from a vP-internal
object position rather than from Spec,TP

Quantehai
detto che *(ne)sonohow.many.F.PL have.2SG said that of.them AUX.3PL'How many of them did you say fell?

[VP cadute __ ] ?
fallen.F.PL

handout 1/page 5•

Does material intervening between C and the subject position interact with skipping?
(rendering it unnecessary to extract from a vP-internal position)

Alteration of C
(30)

French que/qui alternation (cf. (20)) with local Ā-movement of subject(31)

Bùlì ātì/ālì alternation (Sulemana 2017)

In Catalan, yes — and also in some N.Italian dialects (Enrico Flor, p.c.)(28)

Catalan: left-periphery interveners make skipping unnecessary
a. Quants
has
dit que ??han/✓n’han
caigut?
how.many have.you said that have / CL=have fallen'How many (of them) have you said have fallen?'b. Quants has dit que, segons els dos germans, ✓han/?n’han caigut?
how.many have.you said that according.to the two brothers have/CL=have fallen'How many (of them) have you said that, according to the two brothers, have fallen?'(Núria Bosch Masip, personal communication)

In Standard Italian, however, no — a puzzle (Stanislao Zompì, p.c.)

4. Local Ā-movement of the subject also produces effects akin to the thattrace effectReduction of T: anti-agreement

•

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Think of the that-trace effect in English and elsewhere as a reduction or alteration of C
when the subject is extracted.

Tamazight Berber anti-agreement (examples from Ouali 2006, 5, ex. (10)-(12))
subject agreement reduceda.
(full agreement)

Speculatively: "alteration" is always reduction (even if it's not obvious, as in que~qui).
•

New: Such reductions and alterations are found even when the subject is not extracted fromits clause, but merely moved to its edge:b.

(reduced ageement)c.

(*full agreement)

Silencing or loss of C(29) Wolof: *l-a also when subject is short-distance wh-moved (cf.Error! Reference source
not found.))(*l-a)
Local subject extraction obligatorily from (post-verbal) vP-internal position(33)

Italian short-distance subject extraction (compare (27))*Quante __ sono cadute? / ✓Quante nesono cadute __?
how.many
are fallen
CL.GEN'How many (of them) have fallen?'handout 1/page 6(35)

5. What do local and long distance Ā-movement of the subject have incommon?
Answer:•o The proposal here does not ban very local movement — it permits it and even requires
it. But it singles out such movement as triggering an effect.

Their first step (even if not the last):
local Ā-movement of the subject from Spec,TP to Spec,CP

Proposal:Both the that-trace family of effects found wth long-distance Ā-movement and the similareffects found with short-distance Ā-movement have the same origin …
… a consequence of short-distance movement to spec,CP from the specifier of thecomplement of C (henceforth "TP")(34) Kinyalolo Dissimilation (first version)
In [CP … C [TP .... T …]], where TP is the complement of C, if both T and C have triggered
movement of the same phrase, one or the other must undergo featural reduction.

Anti-locality
Movement to the edge of CP must cross a phase boundary.
(cf. Saito & Murasugi 1998; Bošković 1994; Ishii 1999; Grohmann 2003, Erlewine 2015)

My ambition: Total world domination.
Claim: Kinyalolo Dissimilation is responsible for much of the look of the world's less-than-fullclauses (and more).

6. The unity of movement: Kinyalolo Dissimilation triggered by Hyperraising•

Hyper-raising = A-movement from a finite clause

Two languages in which hyper-raising triggers a that-trace effectLusaamia (Bantu, Kenya) shows hyper-raising with a that-trace effect:"The reconstructed reading is blocked by the presence of a complementizer in the embedded
clause." (Carstens & Diercks 2013)

The "skipping strategy": The phrase that moves to spec,CP did not pass through spec,TP.
The ameliorating effect of fronting material between TP and CP: if the material occupies a
specifier or modifier position in a projection between TP and CP, the environment for Kinyalolo
Dissimilation is not met.
Assumption: only feature deletion is an acceptable form of "featural alteration" (but this will not
be crucial), so we might just say "alteration" in the statement of the rule
Examples so far: No pronounced C (right analysis to be determined), C changes its shape, Tloses agreement morphology
To be discussed:
Which head (C or T or both) undergoes dissimilation under which circumstances.
•

Closely related to proposed anti-locality constraints, with which it basically shares anenvironment, e.g.

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Scenario: You find that the watering hole is empty. Though there are no cows on site, you
can say:
a. no raising
Bi-bonekhana koti eng’ombe chi-ng’were amachi
8SA-appear that 10cow
10SA-drink
6water‘It appears that the cows drank the water’b. R1, no complementizer
Eng’ombe chi-bonekhana chi-ng’were amachi
10cow
10SA-appear 10SA-drink 6water‘The cows appear to have drunk the water’... but not:c. R1, complementizer*Eng’ombe chi-bonekhana koti chi-ng’were amachi
10cow
10SA-appear that 10SA-drink 6water‘The cows appear as if they have drunk the water’ (Carstens & Diercks 2013)

handout 1/page 7
Moro (Kordofanian, Sudan): Hyper-raising incompatible with complementizer (as is subject
relativization) (Jenks & Rose)

Another way to skip?
(42)(37) *Complementizer in hyper-raisinga.
(43)Hyperraising co-occurring with complementizer (Zulu)b.

English: Hyperraising surprisingly tolerable if followed by Ā-movement of the hyperraised
nominal — as discovered by Danckaert and Haegeman.
(38)•

Halpert (2018): Raising verb first agrees with CP, then with raised subject — optional which
agreement is realized on verb:

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(39)

•

Halpert (2018): Agreement of higher verb with CP complement "unphases" it — making it
possible to skip successive-cyclic movement through its edge. Can be incorporated in thepresent approach with the same logic as skipping: no dissimilation will be triggered!

•

Prediction: Raising + CP-agreement → no evidence of dissimilation in embedded clause.

The skipping strategy and hyper-raising(40)

No COMP-trace effect: Ā-extraction co-occuring with complementizer (Greek)
Pjos nomizis oti tilefonise?
who think.2S that phoned(Roussou 2002, ex. 32b)

(41)

•

Conjecture: The skipping strategy obviates the COMP-trace effect for hyperraising as it doesfor Ā-extraction.

Fernández-Salgueiro (2005, 2008), for example, observes that several Romance languages(Spanish, Galician, European Portuguese, Italian and Catalan) allow hyperraising with one of
the two patterns observed in Zulu: invariant 3SG agreement on the higher verb, which wemight plausibly analyze as agreement with the embedded clause: Spanish, Galician, European
Portuguese, Italian and Catalan.
Simonović and Arsenijević (2014), building on observations by Klajn (2007), note a similar
possibility in Serbian with the modal verb trebati ’ought/need’ — proscribed by the normative
tradition, but described by Simonović and Arsenijević as “not problematic for most speakers”

handout 1/page 8(45)Long-distance Ā-movement can also trigger infinitivization(47) The "Kayne paradigm" (Kayne 1984)
a. *I assure you Mary to be the best candidate.
b. ✓Mary, who I assure you __ to be the best candidate...
[note also: *Mary was assured you __ to be the best candidate...](48)

English wager-class verbs (Postal 1974; Pesetsky 1991)
a. *We wagered Mary to be the most likely winner.
b. Mary, who we wagered to be the most likely winner...
c. Mary was wagered to be the most likely winner.

(49)

French believe-class verbs (Kayne 1980)
a. *Je croyais cet homme êtrearrivé.
I believed this man
AUX.INF arrived'I believed this man to have arrived.'

7. Infinitivization and long-distance A-movement•[Non-hyper]-Raising =A-movement from a clause that is non-finite.

•

General observation: Infinitival clauses have something funny going on with their subjects.

Terminology for this class of phenomena:
R1 = "Raising to subject"
R2 = "Raising to object" / ECM(46)

b. l'homme que je croyais êtrearrivé...
the.man that I believed AUX.INF arrived'the man that I believed to have arrived...'Complementizerless nonfinite clause (with propositional semantics)
only if embedded subject is extracted

c. %Marie a longtemps été crue
avoir résolu ce problème.
Marie AUX long.time been believe.FEM have solved this problem(also 'consider', 'suppose', 'say', 'guess'...; Pollock 1984)
No infinitivization if no Kinyalolo Dissimilation environment•

Infinitivization conjecture•

Conjecture (to be supported in the next sections):
Infinitivization is another possible result of Kinyalolo Dissimilationo … in (46), the result of long-distance A-movement via Spec,CP …
o … which, since it is limited in English to the embedded subject, entails that C bears
a φ-probe with a movement-triggering (EPP) property in such constructions.

Of course, there is a more established account of the paradigm in (46) as a consequence of theCase Filter. More on that soon.

No infinitivization when there is Zulu-style agreement of a raising verb with its CP
complement, as is possible in Serbian and Bosnian:(50)

Bosnian judgments: V agreement with CP complement → no infinitivization(Nedzad Leko, p.c.)handout 1/page 9(51)

Zulu: no raising from an infinitival clause(because no stopping off at spec,CP)(54)

An analysis of Obligatory Control from Landau (2015, 26)(building on Chierchia 1984)(55)

Control as subject raising to spec,CP

Zulu: CP agreement obligatory even if not morphologically detectable.
BCS: CP agreement an option (in certain registers)•

Extraction of a non-subject does not have the consequences of subject extraction(52)

No that-trace effect for Ā-extraction of a direct object
a. Who do you think that Sue met __?
(cheating slightly here)
b. Who do you think (*that) __ met Sue?

(53)

No infinitivization licensed by direct object extraction
recall:extracting the object does not improve these structures:
a. *What does it seem Mary to have solved?
b. *Which language was it believed Mary to speak well?
c. *How good a candidate is Mary aware Bill to be?

a. Sue promised [CP PRO C [TP __ to leave early]]b. [CP PRO C [TP __ to leave early]] would be rude.

8. Infinitivization and short-distance A-movement
Is infinitivization also triggered by short-distance A-movement?
•

Control: A-movement of PRO (a semantically vacuous minimal pronoun) from Spec,TP toSpec,CP creates the necessary configuration for predicative interpretation …

•

Even in Zulu this yields an infinitive — since local subject movement to Spec,CP does takeplace and de-phasing by a higher verb is irrelevant.

(56)

Zulu control complement is infinitival… triggers Kinyalolo Dissimilation in the form of infinitivization (reducing the featuralcontent of T)(57) English infinitival relative clause, too/enough construction built on local subject
a. I need [a book __ to read on the plane].
b. ?This student is too young __ to take the bar exam [without someone talking to pg first].
(Brillman 2014)