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

40
(Catalan, Hualde 1992: 89, 94, cf. Bonet 1991: 212)
(58) a. L' hi ha donat a la Maria (opaque clit.)
b. M' hi ha presentat (PCC repair)
c. M' (*hi) ha presentat a la Maria
me/him.ACC LOC has introduced/given to the Maria
She has introduced me/given him to Maria/him.
(Catalan, Rezac 2010c, cf. Bonet 1991: 212)
The reverse situation is easy to imagine, and indeed Catalan offers a minimal
contrast. It has another contextual dative-locative syncretism, (58)b. This is a repair
of the Person Case Constraint or PCC (59), introduced in chapter 1 and studied
for French in chapter 4. When the dative becomes a locative here, it adopts the
locative's nondoubling syntax, (58)c. Every other property of it below will likewise
concur that it is syntactic, in contrast to (58)a. These two dative-locative alternations
will then differ on all the elements of a modular signature, which cohere
in each and betray the module where it occurs, morphology or syntax. This is the
situation expected under a strong modular architecture.
(59) PCC repair context (Romance): 1/2.ACCclitic + DAT(clitic)
Inertness can also be illustrated for opaque cliticization to ∅. Varieties of
French allow or require the accusative clitic deletion in (60), and only there. The
omission of 3.ACC is invisible to all syntax and its interpretation. The clitics involved
may have any grammatical function, for instance those brought together in
causative formation, (61)a. The deleted clitic does not have the nonreferential
reading of object drop but those of independent clitics, including the idiom chunk
in (61)c. In (62) it remains disjoint from the local subject, and licenses floating
quantifiers and participle agreement, both of which require clitics. 18
(60) 3SGM/3SGF/PL.ACC le/la/les → ∅ / __ 3SG/PL.DAT lui/leur
( % informal standard French, Old/Middle French, French varieties)
(61) a. Elle (les) lui fera eleur boire eles.
b. Elle *(les) fera boire eles à Paul
she them.ACC him.DAT will.make drink to Paul
She will make him/Paul drink them.
c. Elle (la) lui/leur a baillé belle.
d. Elle *(l') a baillé belle à Paul
she her.ACC him/them.DAT has [given] beautiful.SGF to Paul
She told him/them/Paul a tall tale. (baillé only found here)
(French)
18 The idiom, causative, and participle agreement facts have been long noted for older French,
see Zink (1997: 246f.), de Kok (1985: 577ff., 584); for causatives see also Svenson (1959: 56)
for Marais-Vendéen. The same literature on Old French notes the absence of a phonological explanation,
and Bonami and Boyé (2006: 296) demonstrate it for modern French as well. Section
2.4 discusses other patterns of clitic drop in French.