Quantification and locality.

Abstract

This dissertation develops a transformational theory of scope which is based not on the position to which an entire quantificational noun phrase (QNP) can move and adjoin but on the position and to which a quantificational determiner can move and adjoin. Following Heim (1982), a tripartite representation for sentences containing QNPs is adopted in which quantificational determiners move out of their containing noun phrases and adjoin to the sentence node at the level of Logical Form (LF). By utilizing this type of representation, asymmetries between the movement possibilities of a phrase and scope possibilities of a phrase can be captured. This dissertation argues that movement of an operator is free but constrained by the operator acquiring the selection index of the phrase which it binds. The selection index is percolated up the tree in a series of local relationships (government, specifier/head and X-Bar). This index percolation is dependent on the ability of a syntactic head to acquire an index. The necessity of this index percolation approach is demonstrated in the first chapter, which investigates the phenomenon of unselective binding between an adverbial operator and indefinite in restrictive 'if/when' clauses. It shows that this relationship is sensitive to some syntactic islands but not others. It demonstrates that the index percolation approach is the best way to capture the selective island sensitivities of this phenomenon. Additional motivation for this account is given in chapter two, which deals with internally headed relative clauses (IHRCs). Several parallels between IHRCs and restrictive 'if/when' clauses are noted. It shows that the binding of the internal head by the determiner associated with the IHRC is similar to the binding of an indefinite by an adverbial operator. The next two chapters treat the phenomenon of partial Wh-movement. These chapters further show the application of the index percolation account because they argue that the relationships noted above between an adverbial operator and indefinite and operator and internal head are analogous to the relationship between a partially moved WH-Phrase and the sentence initial scope marker. In chapter six, the scope of quantified possessive phrases in English is examined. This is a case where movement of a phrase and scope of a phrase sharply differ. The approach where the determiner of the possessive is moved alone, with index percolation from the phrase in the specifier position to the moved determiner, is shown to best handle these cases.