On the functional vs. lexical nature of restructuring heads
On the functional vs. lexical nature of restructuring heads

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines in detail the thematic and syntactic properties of a set of (non-)restructuring structures in Germanic, Romance and Basque. Based on the comparison of these structures, I propose a fine-grained classification of (non-)restructuring constructions that include Functional Restructuring, Semi-Lexical Restructuring, Lexical Restructuring and Non-Restructuring constructions. The four types involve complements of different underlying structures (VPs, vPs or even as large as NegP/TPs). The results of the analysis argue against Cinque’s (2005) hypothesis that all restructuring verbs are exclusively functional, and contradicts Wurmbrand’s (1999) claim that, within the mixed class of restructuring verbs, modals must be raising verbs.

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