Clefts and anti-superiority in Moken
Date
2016-07
Authors
Baclawski Jr., Kenneth
Jenks, Peter
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Asia-Pacific Linguistics
Abstract
We describe an extraction asymmetry in Moken that presents apparent Anti-Superiority effects. We then show that this asymmetry is not rooted in Superiority at all. Evidence from island effects is used to demonstrate that the left-dislocation of wh-phrases is not the result of wh-movement as standardly conceived. Furthermore, the same Anti-Superiority effect obtains for non-wh-phrases and clefts. At the same time, standard Superiority effects in Moken do arise in certain environments. These observations lead to the conclusion that Anti-Superiority effects in Moken are not counterexamples to the universality of Superiority, but instead arise due to a constraint on crossed dependencies between arguments and non-argument positions.
Description
Keywords
Moken, constituent question, cleft, superiority
Citation
Source
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS)
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access
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DOI
Restricted until
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