Congratulations to Giovanni Roversi, who successfully defended his fascinating dissertation on Locality: a case study from Äiwoo on July 15th!! Here is Giovanni’s abstract:
This dissertation focuses on the notion of locality in syntactic theory, using as its empirical base a case study from Äiwoo (Solomon Islands; Oceanic < Austronesian).
In this language, word order is variable, yet strict. Depending on a variety of factors, every (transitive) clause can look a number of different ways, with different verbal mophology and the two arguments surfacing in different positions. However, these are not optional alternatives: for any clause, only one order is ever grammatically possible. Moreover, this variation in word order and verbal morphology is partially correlated with a restriction on which argument(s) may or may not be ?-extracted from any type of clause, but there is no one-to-one mapping between word order, verbal morphology, and ?-extraction possibilities.
I try to disentangle these aspects of Äiwoo syntax by building a model that generates all and only the attested clause types, with a principled account of their respective extraction profiles. This will provide us with a fine-grained view on a number of issues in syntactic theory, all ultimately revolving around locality. I argue that the typical locality properties of A- and ?-movement (respectively, strictly local vs. not) are solely derivable from featural Relativized Minimality without adding any new mechanisms to our theoretical apparatus, and that therefore, locality is actually independent from the A/?-distinction altogether. This correctly predicts the existence of exceptions in both directions, that is, instances of movement that break with our expectations (surprisingly non-local A-movement, and surprisingly strictly local ?-movement) which we do indeed find in Äiwoo. I show that these are onlyexceptionsprima facie, and they can receive a principled account based on Relativized Minimality. Furthermore, my model of Äiwoo clausal syntax will also have theoretical consequences for the morphosyntactic properties of Austronesian voice systems, and for the external and internal syntax of different categories of nominals.
See below for some photos of Giovanni after the defense with the three committee members (from left to right: Norvin, David, Omri, Amy Rose Deal, Athulya):
