Swedish wh-root-infinitives
(2017) p.345-361- Abstract
The purpose of this short paper is to present a minimalist account of the syntax of the Swedish Wh-Root-infinitives, trying to characterize the syntax of this generally neglected main clause equivalent while comparing its syntax to the syntax of finite root clauses. See (i) and (ii): (i) Swedish Varför sälj-a huset? why sell-inf house.the 'Why sell the house?' (ii) Swedish Varför sälj-er ni huset? why sell-pres you house.the 'Why do you sell the house?' My account is based on the hypothesis that C minimally probes the sentence type features finite, imperative or infinitive, present in the inflection of the verb. More precisely, I will show that the Swedish facts, like corresponding facts in English, German and Icelandic, follow from a... (More)
The purpose of this short paper is to present a minimalist account of the syntax of the Swedish Wh-Root-infinitives, trying to characterize the syntax of this generally neglected main clause equivalent while comparing its syntax to the syntax of finite root clauses. See (i) and (ii): (i) Swedish Varför sälj-a huset? why sell-inf house.the 'Why sell the house?' (ii) Swedish Varför sälj-er ni huset? why sell-pres you house.the 'Why do you sell the house?' My account is based on the hypothesis that C minimally probes the sentence type features finite, imperative or infinitive, present in the inflection of the verb. More precisely, I will show that the Swedish facts, like corresponding facts in English, German and Icelandic, follow from a grammar driven by an asymmetry with respect to feature values (see Chomsky 2007: 6 and subsequent papers), and that all unvalued features must be eliminated before syntax can zip together form and meaning.
(Less)
- author
- Platzack, Christer LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-03-28
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- host publication
- Order and structure in syntax I : Word order and syntactic structure - Word order and syntactic structure
- pages
- 17 pages
- publisher
- Language Science Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85199070073
- ISBN
- 9783961100279
- 9783961100262
- DOI
- 10.5281/zenodo.1117712
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 70faccba-d48b-45d7-8c45-d3f40f181068
- date added to LUP
- 2025-02-12 15:20:50
- date last changed
- 2025-02-12 15:22:02
@inbook{70faccba-d48b-45d7-8c45-d3f40f181068,
abstract = {{<p>The purpose of this short paper is to present a minimalist account of the syntax of the Swedish Wh-Root-infinitives, trying to characterize the syntax of this generally neglected main clause equivalent while comparing its syntax to the syntax of finite root clauses. See (i) and (ii): (i) Swedish Varför sälj-a huset? why sell-inf house.the 'Why sell the house?' (ii) Swedish Varför sälj-er ni huset? why sell-pres you house.the 'Why do you sell the house?' My account is based on the hypothesis that C minimally probes the sentence type features finite, imperative or infinitive, present in the inflection of the verb. More precisely, I will show that the Swedish facts, like corresponding facts in English, German and Icelandic, follow from a grammar driven by an asymmetry with respect to feature values (see Chomsky 2007: 6 and subsequent papers), and that all unvalued features must be eliminated before syntax can zip together form and meaning.</p>}},
author = {{Platzack, Christer}},
booktitle = {{Order and structure in syntax I : Word order and syntactic structure}},
isbn = {{9783961100279}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
pages = {{345--361}},
publisher = {{Language Science Press}},
title = {{Swedish wh-root-infinitives}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1117712}},
doi = {{10.5281/zenodo.1117712}},
year = {{2017}},
}