Czech embedded root phenomena
Jiri Kaspar (UCL)
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION This paper argues that the Czech particles že and aby must be
allowed to lexicalise different functional heads in the left periphery of embedded clauses.
In addition, it argues that CP-doubling in Czech embedded clauses is licensed under the
same conditions as CP-doubling in Danish and Frisian embedded clauses. The analysis
of the Czech left periphery proposed below improves on the existing analyses by having
a broader empirical coverage.
BACKGROUND The standard analyses of the Czech left periphery assume that the
particles že and aby are complementisers that appear in a fixed position in the C-domain.
Czech clitics have long been argued to appear in the second postion within their containing
clause. Sturgeon (2008) claims that this position is the highest head of the I-domain, and
Lenertová (2001) that it is the lowest head of the C-domain. Both authors agree that the
specifier of the phrase whose head hosts clitics could be targeted by movement of various
phrasal categories (e.g., DP, PP) with various information-structural status (e.g., topic,
focus). According to Sturgeon (2008), the XP can undergo left dislocation to the specifier
of a higher functional projection, in which case it is interpreted as contrastive topic. The
highest copy of XP is spelled out as a full phrase, the intermediate copy is spelled out as
a resumptive pronoun, and the lowest copy is deleted: [?P XP [?P [? Ø ] [IP XP→RES [IP
[I CL ] [vP . . . XP. . . ]]]]].
FINDINGS If že and aby were always located in the same structural position, then
the contrast between (1) and (2) should not arise. (Note: The vertical lines indicate
intonation phrase boundaries.)
(1)
(2)
Jakub
řekl | že tomu děvčeti se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM said že that girl.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Jacob said that that girl did well.
?(?)
Jakub
chtěl | aby tomu děvčeti se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM wanted aby that girl.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Intended: Jacob wanted that girl to do well.
Interestingly, when left dislocation takes place, the contrast becomes even stronger.
(3)
(4)
Jakub
řekl | že tomu děvčeti | tomu
se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM said že that girl.DAT that.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Jacob said that that girl did well.
*Jakub
chtěl | aby tomu děvčeti | tomu
se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM wanted aby that girl.DAT that.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Intended: Jacob wanted that girl to do well.
If clitics could move to the higher available head position, then se should be allowed to
intervene between the left dislocate (i.e., tomu děvčeti ) and the resumptive pronoun (i.e.,
tomu) in (3). However, as demonstrated below, this is impossible.
(5)
*Jakub
řekl | že tomu děvčeti | se
tomu
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM said že that girl.DAT that.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Jacob said that that girl, she did well.
ANALYSIS The contrasts between the pairs of examples above (i.e., (1)-(2) and (3)-
(4)) can receive a straightforward explanation if it is assumed that clitics occupy a fixed
position, and that že and aby can lexicalise different functional heads. In (1) and (2), že is
located in C and aby in I. The variation in the acceptability of (2) is due to inter-speaker
variation: some speakers allow aby to lexicalise the C head, and some do not.
(6)
[CP [C že/?(?) aby ] [IP DP [IP [I CL ] [vP . . . DP. . . ]]]]
To explain the (un)availability of the left dislocation under že and aby in (3) and (4), it
is assumed that (3), but not (4), involves CP-doubling.
(7)
[CP2 [C2 že/*aby ] [CP1 DP [CP1 [C1 Ø ] [IP DP→RES [IP [I CL ] [vP . . . DP. . . ]]]]]]
Iatridou and Kroch (1992) relate the availability of verb second in Danish and Frisian
embedded clauses to the availability of CP-recursion, and note that ’embedded verb
second. . . is found only in clauses governed by an L-marking non-negative, non-irrealis
bridge verb’ (p.7). It appears that CP-doubling in Czech embedded clauses is licensed
under the same conditions. Negating the embedding predicate in (3), or modifying it
with an epistemic modal, prevents left dislocation from taking place (see (8) and (9)).
(8)
*Jakub
neřekl | že tomu děvčeti | tomu
se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM not-said že that girl.DAT that.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Intended: Jacob did not say that that girl did well.
(9)
*Jakub
možná řekl | že tomu děvčeti | tomu
se
dařilo.
Jacob.NOM maybe said že that girl.DAT that.DAT REFL.CL did-well
Intended: Jacob might have said that that girl did well.
CONCLUSION At first sight, it might seem rather remarkable that CP-doubling
in Czech (which is a VO language) should pattern with CP-doubling in Danish and
Frisian (which are OV languages). However, on a closer look, it could be observed that
both contrastive left dislocation in Czech and embedded verb second in Danish and
Frisian are instances of embedded root phenomena. In Czech, left dislocation is almost
exclusively found in root clauses. In Danish and Frisian, verb second is typically operative
in root clauses. Consequently, it can be proposed that what was labelled above as CPdoubling is in fact an addition of a functional projection encoding illocutionary force.
On this view, the highest functional projection in (7) is taken to encode assertoric force.
The licensing conditions on ‘CP-doubling’ in Czech follow from the (in)compatibility of
the embedding predicate with the embedded speech act: ASSERT>ASSERT (see (3));
*NOT-ASSERT>ASSERT (see (8)); *MAYBE-ASSERT>ASSERT (see (9)). As noted
in de Haan (2001), the distribution of embedded verb second in Frisian might be explained
in a similar vein.
de Haan, Germen. 2001. More is going on upstairs than downstairs: Embedded root phenomena
in west frisian. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 4:3–38.
Iatridou, Sabine, and Anthony Kroch. 1992. The licensing of cp-recursion and its relevance to the
germanic verb-second phenomenon. In Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax, volume 50,
1–24.
Lenertová, Denisa. 2001. On clitic placement, topicalization and cp-structure in czech. In Current
issues in formal slavic linguistics, ed. Gerhild Zybatow, Uwe Junghanns, Grit Mehlhorn, and
Luka Szucsich, Linguistik International, 294–305. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH.
Sturgeon, Anne. 2008. The left periphery: the interaction of syntax, pragmatics and prosody in
czech, volume 129 of Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA). Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Company.