Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of - UMR 7023 - CNRS

Dative clitics continue to license floating quantifiers when doubling a focussed
strong pronoun, as in (151)a, or rather the contextualized (152). 70
105
(152) D'abord nous avons contacté les victimes, puis les témoins. Quand on
{lesi a tousi interrogés EUXi / euxi aussi} / {leuri a tousi parlé à EUXi /
euxi aussii}, on a clos l'enquête.
First we contacted the victims, then the witnesses. When we {them.A
have all interrogated THEM / them too} / we {them.D have all spoken to
THEM/ them too}, we closed the investigation.
(Rezac 2010b)
Morphological accusative clitic deletion does not affect floating quantifier licensing
in grammars where it can affect 3PL les, as discussed in chapter 2:
(153) Je les/∅i lui ai tousi déjà présentés.
I them.A her.D have all already introduced
(chapter 2)
Clitic doubling and clitic deletion closely control for any surface requirements
to which floating quantifiers might be sensitive. The failure of the strong pronoun
o the PCC repair to license them is good evidence that it is missing the high Aposition
from which clitics do so, and so differs from them syntactically, in the
same way as focussed dative and all locative strong pronouns. 71
4.4.3 Condition B
3 rd person dative and accusative clitics are regulated by Conditions A and B of the
Binding Theory. 3SG lui, 3PL leur must be disjoint from the subject, SE se must
be anaphoric to it. Strong pronouns can usually be anaphoric to the subject, even
without -même 'self' (Couquaux 1977, Morin 1978, Zribi-Hertz 1980, 2003, 2008).
This includes locative strong pronouns, and focussed dative ones for those speakers
who allow them without clitic doubling (note 60):
70 The questionnaire for (152) results in nearly perfect acceptability for the accusative for most
speakers, but the dative splits into the same score for four speakers, sharp degradation for two,
and medium for three. Further inquiry indicates that the degradation is due to the failure of datives
to license floating quantifiers and not the doubling, reflecting the dialectal split in note 59.
71 Doubled strong pronouns control for the possibility that floating quantifier licensing would be
interfered with by a linked DP following the quantifier (P. Svenonius p.c.; cf. Belletti 2005,
Rezac 2010b). Clitic deletion controls for sensitivity to a surface-overt antecedent. It bears on a
point due to D. Pesetsky (p.c.): floating quantifiers are not licensed by covert A'-movement even
when licensed by overt A'-movement (as in McCloskey 2000). Fitzpatrick (2006) develops a
comprehensive analysis where A-licensed floating quantifiers are anaphoric adverbials whereas
A'-licensed ones are stranded adnominal ones. On it, Pesetsky's point might be related to the lack
of need for covert movement to pied-pipe (Chomsky 1995, but cf. Pesetsky 2000). Other overtcovert
differences could be responsible, such as the ability of covert movement to move over
longer distances and so skip the floating site (cf. Richards 2001: chapter 2).