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

4.4.6 Overview
109
The syntax and interpretation of the dative strong pronouns of the PCC repair
is clearly distinct from that of dative clitics. On every point it aligns with that of
focussed dative and all locative strong pronouns, save for the focus requirement of
datives. The repair is not using clitic syntax but the syntax of a strong pronoun.
Since the repair depends on the PCC and its reference to the 1 st /2 nd /reflexive-3 rd
person distinction among accusative clitics, the PCC and this distinction are part
of the conditions that govern the availability of the syntactic structure of the repair.
There is some mechanism by which the syntactic structure of the dative refers
to the phi-features of the accusative, some phi-agreement in syntax. The actual
mechanisms by which the PCC and the repair refer to phi-features are
developed in the next chapter. The next section turns to a different syntactic aspect
of them: their reference to syntactic distinctions among dative types.
4.5 Applicative datives
4.5.1 Introduction
Not all datives can undergo the PCC repair. So far, only indirect objects have
been examined: the internal arguments of verbs like présenter 'introduce'. They
correspond to datives that may appear in English in both the prepositional construction,
give X to Y, and the applicative one, give Y X. French also has datives
such as possessors and causees that can only appear in the applicative construction
cross-linguistically. The difference assumed between the two constructions is repeated
below as (131). The c-command relationships of the A-positions in the vP
are all that matters here, and they are shared by various approaches, as such Anagnostopoulou
(2003), Cuervo (2003ab); Baker (1988, 1996, 1997), Ormazabal and
Romero (1998, forthc); Den Dikken (1995b, 2006).
(132) a. prepos. dat.: T° … v° … [DPobject … [P° DP]]
b. applic. dat.: T° … v° … [DP(.DAT) … [DPobject …]]
Purely applicatives datives like causees aid greatly in understanding the PCC
and its repair. First, they cannot be repaired. From this may be deduced that the
repair relies on the prepositional construction, and is unavailable for datives that
cannot appear in it, following Couquaux (1975). Second, they create the PCC both
as clitics and à-phrases. This fits into the characterization of the PCC in (121) as
the intervention of an applicative object between a DP and its Case/Agree head v.
It is the only position available to purely applicative dative à-phrases like causees,
(132)b, whereas indirect object dative à-phrases avoid creating the PCC because
they can occur in the prepositional construction, (132)a. All dative clitics also create
the PCC, because they pass through an A-position between v and the direct object
in cliticization, as concluded in section 4.2 and again in section 4.7.