Scoping out of adjuncts : evidence for the parallelism between QR and WH-movement
What gives rise to reversal of quantifier scope has been a long-standing question in the study of linguistics. In the framework of Generative Grammar, it has been standard since May (1977) to analyse scope-shift as a form of covert movement, Quantifier Raising (QR). Evidence for this analysis comes from the fact that QR is sensitive to the very same island constraints that restrict overt movement (e.g. wh-movement). However, the widely assumed parallelism between scope-shift and wh-movement, which the theory of QR rests on, has not been experimentally examined in any depth. This thesis reports an experimental study that examined the parallelism between QR and wh-movement in terms of their sensitivity to the adjunct island constraint, in order to test the QR theory empirically. An experimental study based on acceptability judgement tasks was carried out in order to test QR and wh-argument extraction out of three types of non-finite adjuncts: bare participial gerunds, after-prepositional gerunds, and during-PPs. The outcome mostly revealed similarities in the locality of QR and wh-extraction, supporting a parallelism between the two, and hence the theory of QR. On the other hand, the outcome also suggested some
Tanaka, M.
Scoping out of adjuncts : evidence for the parallelism between QR and WH-movement. What gives rise to reversal of quantifier scope has been a long-standing question in the study of linguistics. In the framework of Generative Grammar, it has been standard since May (1977) to analyse scope-shift as a form of covert movement, Quantifier Raising (QR). Evidence for this analysis comes from the fact that QR is sensitive to the very same island constraints that restrict overt movement (e.g. wh-movement). However, the widely assumed parallelism between scope-shift and wh-movement, which the theory of QR rests on, has not been experimentally examined in any depth. This thesis reports an experimental study that examined the parallelism between QR and wh-movement in terms of their sensitivity to the adjunct island constraint, in order to test the QR theory empirically. An experimental study based on acceptability judgement tasks was carried out in order to test QR and wh-argument extraction out of three types of non-finite adjuncts: bare participial gerunds, after-prepositional gerunds, and during-PPs. The outcome mostly revealed similarities in the locality of QR and wh-extraction, supporting a parallelism between the two, and hence the theory of QR. On the other hand, the outcome also suggested some
adjunct evidence parallelism wh_movement give_rise reversal quantifier scope long_standing question study linguistics framework generative_grammar standard since may analyse scope shift form covert movement quantifier raising evidence analysis come fact sensitive island constraint restrict overt movement wh_movement however widely_assume parallelism scope shift wh_movement theory rest experimentally examine depth report experimental_study examine parallelism wh_movement term sensitivity adjunct island constraint order_test theory empirically experimental_study base acceptability_judgement task carry order_test argument extraction three_type non finite adjunct bare participial after prepositional pps outcome mostly revealed similarity locality extraction support parallelism hence theory hand outcome also_suggest