The Syntax of Romanian Studies in Generative Grammar Editors Jan Köster Henk van Riemsdijk Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York The Syntax of Romanian Comparative Studies in Romance by Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York 1994 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. The series Studies in Generative Grammar was formerly published by Foris Publications Holland. © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen, The Syntax of Romanian : comparative studies in Romance / Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, p. cm. — (Studies in generative grammar ; 40) Originally presented as the author's thesis (These d'Etat). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 3-11-013541-8 (cloth) 1. Romanian language — Syntax. 2. Romanian language— Verb. 3. Romanian language—Grammar, Generative. 4. Romanian language—Grammar, Comparative—Romance. 5. Romance languages — Grammar, Comparative — Romanian. 6. Romance languages —Syntax. 7. Romance languages—Verb. 8. Romance languages — Grammar, Generative. I. Title. II. Series. PC725.D63 1993 459'.5 —dc20 93-5554 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen: The syntax of Romanian : comparative studies in romance / by Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1993 (Studies in generative grammar ; 40) ISBN 3-11-013541-8 NE: GT © Copyright 1993 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: Gericke GmbH, Berlin. Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin Printed in Germany. Ce serait entreprendre le r£cit d'un cauchemar que de vous raconter par le menu l'histoire de mes relations avec cet idiome d'emprunt [le frangais], avec tous ces mots pensis et repens£s, affinis, subtils jusqu'ä l'inexistence, courbis sous les exactions de la nuance, inexpressifs pour avoir tout exprimö, effrayants de prdcision, chargis de fatigue et de pudeur, discrets jusque dans la vulgarity [...] plus aucune trace de terre, de sang, d'äme en eux. Une syntaxe d'une raideur, d'une dignity cadavirique les enserre et leur assigne une place d'ou Dieu meme ne pourrait les ddloger. [...] sans quoi jamais je n'eusse abandonnd la notre [le roumain], dont il m'arrive de regretter l'odeur de fraicheur et de pourriture, le mölange de soleil et de bouse, la laideur nostalgique, le superbe d6braillement Ε. M. Cioran, Histoire et Utopie Preface This book started out as a translation of my Thfese d'Etat, but it has become a quite different piece of work. Chapters 1 through 4, as well as chapter 7 are entirely new. The central ideas of chapters 5 and 6 go back to my dissertation, but have been revised in essential ways. Chapter 6 is reprinted from Linguistic Inquiry (1990, 3) without any change in content; because of technical difficulties, the numbering of examples differs from the version in Linguistic Inquiry, but everything else is identical. During the four years I spent writing this book, I greatly benefited from opportunities to present my ideas to other people. Preliminary versions of the whole book were presented in various talks in Paris, in a research course at Stony Brook (1992) and in talks given at the University of Bucarest and the Romanian Academy of Sciences. These visits were made possible by financial support from the CNRS. During my stays in Bucarest (1990-1992), Stony Brook and ΜΓΓ (1991-1992), discussions with Noam Chomsky, Pusi Cornilescu, Dan Finer, Irene Heim, Jim Higginbotham, Peter Ludlow, Richard Larson, Eric Reuland and Anna Szabolcsi, were especially fruitful. The central idea of Chapter 7 was first presented at the LF Conference in Tilburg (1988), and in a more refined form in Le Deuxifeme Congrös des Langues Romanes (Groningen 1992), GLOW 1992 (Lisbon), and talks given in MIT, Stony Brook and New Jersey (1992). Parts of chapter 5 were presented in Going Romance (Utrecht 1991) and Linguistica Romena Oggi (Venice 1992). Chapters 1 and 2 were presented at CUNY. I am extremely grateful to the audiences at these events, notably Guglielmo Cinque, Giuliana Giusti, Ruohmei Hsieh, Richie Kayne, Tony Kroch, Pino Longobardi, Ken Safir and Eriko Sato- Zhu for challenging questions and insightful criticism. Several people gave me helpful comments on preliminary drafts of the manuscript. Among them, I am especially indebted to Anna Cardinaletti, Dan Finer, Daniele Godard, Sandu Grosu, Maria Teresa Guasti, Jacqueline Guiron, Sarah Kennelly, Richard Larson, Peter Ludlow, Lea Nash, Hans Obenauer, Georges Rebuschi, Henk van Riemsdijk, Maria-Luisa Rivero, Isabelle Simatos and Elisabeth Villalta, Anne Zribi-Hertz. The acknowledgments for Chapter 6 are reproduced with it. Special thanks go to Antoine Culioli, Richard Kayne and Jean Claude Milner for having shown me how to become a linguist and to Irene Heim and Anna Szabolcsi for their invaluable help with Chapter 7 . The manuscript was more or less completed in September 1990, and circulated in preliminary versions since then. In preparing the final text, I received editorial assistance from Mouton de Gruyter Publishers, and technical assistance from the staff of the Linguistics Department of the University of Paris 7. Finally, I would like to thank Sarah Kennelly and Kristin Stromberg for having tried to improve the style of my English and Elisabeth Villalta for having compiled the Index. Table of Contents IX Table of Contents Preface VII Introduction XIII 1. Auxiliaries and the structure of IP constituents 1 1.1. Auxiliary constructions 2 1. 1. 1. Auxiliaries and tense features 5 1. 1.2. Auxiliaries and generalized V-raising 6 1. 1. 3. "V-second" constructions (subject-Aux/V inversion; Aux-to-Comp) 12 1. 1. 4. Biclausal auxiliary structures (I) 14 Conclusions 15 1. 2. The structure of auxiliary constructions 15 1. 2. 1. Biclausal auxiliary structures (Π) 15 1. 2. 2. Raising constructions 18 1. 2. 3. Monoclausal auxiliary structures 20 Conclusions 23 1. 3. Auxiliaries, bare infinitives and the distribution of clitics 24 1. 3. 1. Auxiliaries and bare infinitives 24 1. 3. 2. Bare infinitives and clitic adverbs 26 1. 4. Auxiliary structures and Long Head Movement 27 1.4. 1 Auxiliary inversion and the ECP 29 1. 4. 2. On the absence of auxiliary inversion 31 1. 4. 3. Inverted conjugations and relativized minimality 33 1. 4. 4. Modals 35 1. 5. The licensing of verbs, auxiliaries and types of IP constituents 36 1. 5. 1. IP structvfre and auxiliaries 37 1. 5. 2. Auxiliary configurations and the Tense filter 38 1.5.3. The licensing of verbs embedded under modals 39 1.5. 4. "Biclausal" tenses 40 1. 5. 5. Towards a definition of auxiliaries 40 1.6. The perfect auxiliary fi 'be' 41 Conclusions 45 Appendix 47 2. Clitic Placement and the rule of Move I-to-C 49 2. 1. Cliticization in Romance languages 49 2. 1. 1 Clitic Placement as adjunction to Infi 50 2. 1.2. Clitic Placement as adjunction to IP 53 2. 1. 3. Two instances of Move Infl-to-Comp: V-second and V-preposing 55 2. 1. 4. The ECP and Merging 57 2. 1. 5. The adjacency condition on Merging 59 Conclusions 61 X The Syntax of Romanian 2. 2. Romanian clitics 62 2. 2. 1. Deriving linear order from hierarchical structure 63 2. 2. 2. A definition of clitics 65 2. 3. The rule of V-preposing and clitic Merging 66 2. 3. 1. Adverbial clitics and V-preposing 66 2.3.2. Move I lands in Comp 67 2. 3. 3. Negation 68 2. 3. 4. Proclisis, enclisis and Merging 70 Conclusions 72 2. 4. Move I-to-C (V-preposing) in auxiliary structures 72 2. 4. 1. The distribution of clitics in auxiliary structures 73 2. 4. 2. Auxiliary inversion and endoclitic pronouns 78 Conclusions . 79 Appendix: A diachronic note: early Romance inverted conjugations 80 3. The constituent structure of infinitives and subjunctives 82 3. 1. The constituent structure of infinitival clauses 82 3. 1. 1. The categorial status of a 82 3. 1.2. The structure of infinitival IP constituents 87 3. 1. 3. Control structures 91 3. 2. The constituent structure of subjunctive clauses 93 3. 2. 1. The categorial status of sä 93 3. 2. 2. The structure of subjunctive IP constituents 98 3. 2. 3. On certain differences between subjunctives and indicatives 104 3. 2. 4. On the difference between CP and IP 106 3. 2. 5. The doubly filled Comp filter and predication 107 3. 2. 6. Comp and left dislocated elements 109 4. Subject anaphors in subjunctive clauses 112 4. 1. The data: control, subject raising and obviation 112 4. 2. PRO and control structures 114 4. 3. On the contextual identification of anaphors 115 4. 4. Subject raising 118 4. 5. Obviation 120 4. 6. The constituent structure of Romanian subjunctives 121 4. 7. The governing category of the subject of Romanian subjunctives 122 4. 8. The null subject of Romanian infinitives 126 Conclusions 126 5. Copula passives and middle/passive se with (in)transitives 128 Introduction 128 5. 1. Passives with (in)transitives 129 5. 1. 1. The data 129