Identifier

etd-11082004-201124

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Linguistics (Interdepartmental Program)

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The Adjunct Island Constraint proposed by Ross (1967) together with Chomsky’s Barriers (1986) are not sufficient to account for the ungrammaticality of wh-extraction out of adjunct clauses, nor do they address the instances of grammatical extraction out of such constructions. Extraction out of Adjunct Islands is now completely predictable using a combination of Chomsky’s Minimalist Program (1995) and Kehler’s Coherence Theory (2002). The combination of these two theories gives an account of both the grammatical and ungrammatical instances of wh- extraction out of adjuncts. The principles of the Minimalist Program together with evidence from Old English adverbial clauses determines the necessary structure for grammatical extraction, while an extension of the Coherence Theory mandates the required semantic relation between the matrix and adjunct clauses. This thesis proves that the possibility of wh-extraction out of adjunct islands is dependent upon the seamless integration of syntax and semantics.

Date

2004

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Michael Hegarty

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.677

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