Sentential Subjects and the Freezing Principle in Turkish Cover Image

Sentential Subjects and the Freezing Principle in Turkish
Sentential Subjects and the Freezing Principle in Turkish

Author(s): Sinan Çakır
Subject(s): Applied Linguistics, Syntax, Pragmatics, Turkic languages
Published by: T.C. MEHMET AKİF ERSOY ÜNİVERSİTESİ EĞİTİM FAKÜLTESİ
Keywords: generative syntax; the sentential subject constraint; the freezing principle; Turkish;

Summary/Abstract: The Freezing Principle, which claims that nothing can be extracted out of a moved element, was proposed to replace the pre-minimalist subject condition effects. In the present paper, extractions out of sentential subjects have been analyzed to determine the functionality of the Freezing Principle in Turkish. In the analyses of the scrambling and wh-movement structures, it was observed that the Freezing Principle successfully explains the violations that take place in such extractions. As for the relativization structures, the previous studies assert that it is possible to extract elements out of moved phrases in such constructions, which should not be possible under the freezing approach. For such constructions, this paper proposes cyclic movement of the relative clause operator from the lower embedded CP to the upper embedded CP. During this movement, this operator is not extracted out of any moved phrase; therefore, the Freezing Principle is not violated. This paper proposes that the Sentential Subject Constraint holds in Turkish and the Freezing Principle successfully explains all instances of ungrammatical sentential subject extractions.

  • Issue Year: 4/2018
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 61-74
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English
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