Thoms, Gary

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      P-stranding diagnoses A'-movement in tough constructionsCitation for published version:Thoms, G 2011, 'P-stranding diagnoses A'-movement in tough constructions' Snippets, vol 24, 8, pp. 20.Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Early version, also known as pre-printPublished In:SnippetsGeneral rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 28. Apr. 2017  snippets  Issue 24 November 2011         Contents 1.Theresa Biberauer and Johan Oosthuizen. More unbearably light elements? Silent verbs demanding overt complementizers in Afrikaans.  2. Alex Drummond. The ban on rightward P-stranding is a global constraint. 3. Giorgio Magri. The plurality inference of object mass nouns. 4. Jacopo Romoli. Presupposition wipe-out can’t be all or nothing: a note on conflicting presuppositions. 5. Philippe Schlenker. Generalized bishop sentences. 6. Carson Schütze. There does not undergo predicate inversion. 7. Michelle Sheehan. A note on case assignment to CP. 8. Gary Thoms. P-stranding diagnoses A’-movement in tough constructions. 9. Honglei Wang, David Potter and Masaya Yoshida. Cross-conjunct binding in nominal gapping.     Snippets - Issue 24 – November 2011 http://www.ledonline.it/snippets/  - 20 - 8.   Gary Thoms -  University of Strathclyde P-stranding diagnoses A’-movement in tough constructions  gary.thoms@gmail.com   “Tough movement” (TM) is exemplified by the pair in (1).  (1) a. It is tough to please linguists.        b. Linguists1 are tough to please t1. The literature on TM reports that it exhibits both A- and A′-properties, and some analyses (e.g. Hicks 2009) have proposed to account for this by decomposing TM derivations into two steps, where the first is A‟-movement to the embedded Spec,CP and the second A-movement to Spec,TP. Here I provide a new argument for diagnosing the first step as A‟-movement with data from preposition stranding (p-stranding) across languages.   P-stranding languages like English allow for p-stranding with TM:  (2)  Magicians1 are difficult to talk to t1.  As one might expect, non-p-stranding languages like Italian do not allow for TM with p-stranding:  (3) a. *I     maghi          sono difficili  da  parlare   a            the magicians     are    difficult DA talk.INF to          „Magicians are difficult to talk to.‟        b. È difficile parlare     ai     maghi.            is difficult talk.INF to.the magicians.             „It is difficult to talk to magicians.‟    It is known that some languages, such as Danish and Icelandic, allow for p-stranding with A′-movement but not A-movement, while there are no known languages that allow for p-stranding in A-movement but not A′-movement. The Danish stranding data is in (4) and the Icelandic in (5) (from Truswell 2009):  (4) a. Hvem har Peter  snakket med?            Who   has Peter talked    with           „Who has Peter talked with?‟          b. *Han blev grinet    af               He    was laughed at            „He was laughed at.‟      Snippets - Issue 24 – November 2011 http://www.ledonline.it/snippets/  - 21 - (5) a. Hvern hefur Pé́tur talað    við?            Who    has   Peter talked with           „Who has Peter talked with?‟        b. *Ég tel         Vigdísi vera     oftast            talað�  vel    um.               I    believe Vigdis  be.INF most.often   spoken well   of             „I believe Vigdis to be most often spoken well of.‟ These languages can diagnose whether or not TM – specifically the step of movement from the base position – is A- or A′-movement: if p-stranding is possible in Icelandic and Danish TM, the first step must be A′-movement.   Danish (6) and Icelandic (7) show that these languages allow for p-stranding under TM:  (6) a. Tryllekunstnere er    svære at  tale med           Magicians        are    tough to talk with           „Magicians are tough to talk to.‟           b. Det     er svært at tale med  tryllekunstnere           Expl.  is  tough to talk  with magicians.            „It is tough to talk to magicians.‟ (7) a. Töframenn eru erfiðir    að tala við.           Magicians are  difficult to talk with.           „Magicians are difficult to talk to.‟         b. Það    er erfitt    að tala við     töframenn           Expl.  is tough  to talk  with magicians           „It is tough to talk to magicians.‟       c. Hinrik VIII var erfiðir     að búa með           Henry VIII was difficult to live with            (Thráinsson 2007: 431) This indicates that the first move in TM dependencies must be A′-movement.   References Hicks, G. (2009) “Tough-constructions and their derivation.” Linguistic Inquiry 40, 535-566. Thráinsson, H.. The syntax of Icelandic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Truswell, R. (2009) “Preposition stranding, passivisation and extraction from adjuncts in Germanic.” Linguistic Variation Yearbook 9, 131-177.     

P-stranding diagnoses A'-movement in tough constructions

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