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

116
g. Marcel l'a fait vous choisir/dessiner.
Marcel made her.A (l') choose/draw you.A (vous).
(ECM caus.)
Beside Postal's (1989) detailed study, the constraint has been widely but briefly
noted, for instance Bissel (1944: 331), Kayne (1975: 241f.), Milner (1982: 152-4),
Tasmowski (1985: 350-3), and the references given in Postal (1989). Example
(177) is constructed so as to maximize the pragmatic felicity of cliticization and àphrase
causees set out in Tasmowski (1985) (cf. (216)). Nevertheless, the à-phrase
causee of the active is always judged sharply and irredeemably ungrammatical;
the par-phrase agent of the passive is perfect or nearly so. 79
(177) Mais comment te faire inviter malgré les restrictions budgétaires? Et par
qui? Qui trouver qui serait assez stupide pour ne pas s'en apercevoir
quand il signe les documents. Ah! On te fera inviter *au / √par le chef
de personnel. Il est toujours bourré.
But how to get you invited despite the budget restrictions? And by
whom? Who can we find that would be stupid enough not to realize it
when he is signing the documents. Ah! We'll *have the head of personnel
invite you (active) / √get you invited by the head of personnel
(passive). He is always drunk.
The Person Case Constraint in (121) unifies the ban on 1 st /2 nd /SE accusative
clitics in the context of a dative clitic and of a dative à-phrase causee alike. They
79 The restructuring causative is sometimes degraded with 3 rd person direct objects that are animate
or specific or clitic, depending (i) on the choice of verb, good being e.g. embrasser 'kiss',
épouser 'marry', oublier 'forget', photographier 'photograph', worse tuer 'kill', marrier 'marry', effleurer
'graze', (ii) the coding of the causee, à-phrases 3.ACCanim … à-causee being worse than
clitics 3.ACCanim 3.DATcausee (Bissel 1944: 331, Kayne 1975: 241f., Milner 1982: 152-4, Tasmowski
1985: 350-3, Postal 1989: 9, 12, 120 note 5). Only one of these factors affects the badness
of 1 st /2 nd person accusative clitics, and then inversely: they are more ungrammatical if the
causee is a clitic, thus forming *me-lui clusters, rather than an à-phrase (cf. section 6.5, and àphrases
causees of connaître verbs below to which coercion might be available). The two phenomena
are also divorced in the results of García (2001), examining accusative clitic climbing in
French, Spanish, and Italian. There is considerable variation for 3 rd person animates, sharp unacceptability
for 1 st /2 nd person clitics. It seems likely the degradation of 3 rd person animates is a different
phenomenon, perhaps along the essentially pragmatic/parsing-based lines of Tasmowski
(1985) and García (2001), with competition between the clitic and à-phrase for topichood and
agentivity; cf. note 97. If it falls under the PCC, climbing somehow sometimes forces an otherwise
absent [+person] specification on animates (found in other languages, chapter 6).
(i) a Je te (*lui) ai fait inviter (*à Paul).
b Je la (lui) ai fait inviter (*à Paul).
c Je (lui) ai fait inviter (*à Paul) ta sœur.
I you/her.A him.D have made invite to Paul your sister
((b), (c) Milner 1982: 152, 154 note 1)