This book contains a selection of papers on issues of current interest in syntax and morpho-syntax. Most topics pertain to the question of the relation between word order and syntactic structure. The discussion starts with a proposal of extending the theory of relativization to reason clauses. It continues with the analysis of the realization of focus in Basque and the discussion of current views on the syntax of cleft constructions. Next, an inquiry into the rigidity of sentence left-periphery is offered in a cross-linguistic perspective. The two final contributions discuss feature-free derivations in syntax applied to a single morpho-syntactic problem, and the question of gradient acceptability of Polish sentences featuring possessive items in the context of the competition between their reflexive and pronominal forms.

This volume presents a number of contributions to the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistics Society held in Szczecin, Poland, October 26-28. The largest number of articles address issues related to the (morpho)syntactic level of language structure, and several papers describe results of recent research into different aspects of Slavic linguistics as well. The current volume proves conclusively that Slavic linguists make a remarkable contribution to the development of various theoretical frameworks by analysing linguistic evidence from richly inflected languages, which allows them to test and modify contemporary theories and approaches based on other types of data.

This is book is a collection of papers on various aspects of the syntax and morphosyntax of Germanic and Slavic languages (English, German, Czech, Polish, and Russian), stemming from the Syntax Session of the 2006 PLM conference in Poznan (Poland). Gisbert Fanselow and Caroline Fery discuss lack of Superiority with German movement; Gereon Muller links pro-drop to non-impoverished inflectional morphology; Christopher Wilder deals with English constructions with a directional locative and imperative; Adam Bialy decomposes event structure; Katarzyna Sowka analyses the semantics of German verbs of giving; Ewa Bulat takes a fresh look at null subjects; Helen Trugman presents the distribution of adnominal adjectives in Russian; Agnieszka Pysz explores the same issue in Old English; Bozena Cetnarowska employs OT to describe possessives in Polish; Katarzyna Miechowicz-Mathiassen and Pawel Scheffler compare Polish and Italian reversible verbs; Radek Simik describes different relative pronouns in Czech; Mojmir Docekal discusses lack of WCO effects in Czech; Michael Moss argues for a complex structure of the Polish clause, and Jacek Witkos demonstrates that control-as-movement penetrates CPs.

One of the well-known properties of Slavic languages is that they show subject-oriented reflexives. This book presents this phenomenon in Polish in great empirical detail and provides its up-to-date syntactic analysis, couched in the minimalist model of grammar. The analysis accounts for the fact that not only nominative subjects but also experiencers, both dative-marked and some accusative-marked, function as antecedents for reflexive elements. On the basis of empirical studies, the book explains why dative experiencers bind both reflexive and pronominal possessives in identical local configurations, while nominatve subjects bind only reflexive possessives. The authors investigate both long-distance binding relations in infinitives and contexts internal to nominal phrases. Extensive references are made to binding in other languages and alternative models.

This book discusses existential and possessive constructions in two important, yet under-studied, language families, Slavic and Finno-Ugric. Using data from the Slavic languages of Polish, Belarusian and Russian, and the Finno-Ugric languages of Finnish, Hungarian, Meadow Mari, Komi-Permiyak and Udmurt, as well as the closely related Selkup of the Samoyedic family, the chapters in this volume analyse predicative possession in current syntactic terms. Seeking an answer to the theoretical question of whether BE-possessives and HAVE-possessives are just accidental values of the 'Possessive Parameter' or are intrinsically related, this book takes a comparative approach to a whole range of syntactic and semantic phenomena that appear in these constructions, including the definiteness restriction, genitive of negation, person/number agreement, argument structure and extractability. The individual case studies can be easily integrated into the Principles & Parameters framework in terms of parametric variation. Approaches to Predicative Possession is an important contribution to our understanding of predicative possession across languages, with findings that can be fruitfully extended to other language families. It is an equally useful source of information for theoretical linguists, typologists, and graduate students of linguistics.

This book discusses existential and possessive constructions in two important, yet under-studied, language families, Slavic and Finno-Ugric. Using data from the Slavic languages of Polish, Belarusian and Russian, and the Finno-Ugric languages of Finnish, Hungarian, Meadow Mari, Komi-Permiyak and Udmurt, as well as the closely related Selkup of the Samoyedic family, the chapters in this volume analyse predicative possession in current syntactic terms. Seeking an answer to the theoretical question of whether BE-possessives and HAVE-possessives are just accidental values of the 'Possessive Parameter' or are intrinsically related, this book takes a comparative approach to a whole range of syntactic and semantic phenomena that appear in these constructions, including the definiteness restriction, genitive of negation, person/number agreement, argument structure and extractability. The individual case studies can be easily integrated into the Principles & Parameters framework in terms of parametric variation. Approaches to Predicative Possession is an important contribution to our understanding of predicative possession across languages, with findings that can be fruitfully extended to other language families. It is an equally useful source of information for theoretical linguists, typologists, and graduate students of linguistics.

Numeral constructions in Polish are known for their complex morpho-syntax: in particular, depending on the type, case and syntactic context, the numeral may show properties of the adjective or the noun. This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of these constructions set in the current generative-minimalist model of grammar, with elements of nano-syntax. The authors pay particular attention to a feature-based derivation of the numeral construction in its different versions, including complex multiplicative numerals, as well as its distribution in the clause. Numerals in the subject position, with their peculiar case and agreement features become a focal point of attention. Their properties receive a principled account through the use of the case projection sequence and disciplined movements within it.

This book addresses an old observation that complex interrogative constituents moved to the left periphery of the clause display dual properties with respect to principles of Chomsky's Binding Theory; in some cases the displaced constituent feeds Principle C while in others it does not. This account of the relationship between syntactic movement and its undoing (Reconstruction) for the purpose of establishing coreference relations involving pied-piped nominal phrases is based on certain refinements of ideas proposed in Lebaux (1988, 1992), Freidin (1986), Chomsky (1993) and Safir (1999). We assume that differences between Reconstruction (feeding of Principle C) and the anti-Reconstruction effects (amelioration of Principle C) result from two processes: the point of introduction of a given category into the phrase marker and vehicle change of Safir (1999). The former factor distinguishes between arguments and adjuncts, while the latter replaces a name embedded in an overtly moved interrogative phrase with its pronominal correlate.