Speaker: Norvin Richards (MIT)
Title: Extreme preposition stranding in Dinka and Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey
Time: Tuesday, November 3, 1-2 PM
Location: 32-D461
Dinka and Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey both have types of extraction which distinguish between DPs and non-DPs; the distinction has syntactic and morphological consequences in various parts of the clause. Van Urk (2015) was able to use the Dinka version of this phenomenon to argue that PP extraction in Dinka involves converting the PP into a DP at a certain point along the movement path. I’ll argue that Passamaquoddy can perform the same kind of conversion. In both cases, the resulting DP participates in phi-agreement (and, in the Dinka example, case-assignment) as though it had never been the object of a preposition. I’ll try to demonstrate that all of the above is true, and then talk about possible consequences.