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

(126) a. Il lesi (lui) a dit-esi.
He.N them(PLF).A him.D has told-PLF
He told them (to him). (e.g. les nouvelles 'the news(PLF)')
b. Il (le) leuri a dit(*-esi).
He.N him.A them(PLF).D has said(*-PLF)
He told (it) for them. (e.g. aux filles 'to the girls(PLF)')
c. Ellesi (lui) onti été dit-esi.
they(PLF).N (him.D) were been told-PLF
They were told (to him). (e.g. les nouvelles 'the news(PLF)')
d. *Ellesi (l') onti été dit(-esi).
they(PLF).N (him.A) were been told-PLF
They were told (it), It was told to them.
(dative vs. accusative Case and agreement)
– Floating quantifiers: In French as in English, there are preparticipial bare
floating quantifiers licensed by DPs but not PPs in a c-commanding (A-
)position, as in The birdsi had alli/*j gathered on the branchesi vs. On the
branchesj had (*alli/j) gathered the birdsi. (127) shows that dative clitics license
them like accusative clitics do, but locative clitics do not. Dative clitics
are DP-like on this test. There are also postparticipial floating quantifiers
in (127). Dative license them in the form à + quantifier. By this à,
dative clitics are PP-like, unlike accusative clitics whose floating quantifiers
are bare (and usually float to the preparticipial position). Yet their PPhood
is 'weaker' than that of locative clitics, which do not license postverbal
floating quantifiers in any form. Nonclitics do not license floating
quantifiers if they are in-situ. If they are A'-fronted, nonclitic accusatives
but not datives in (128) license bare preverbal floating quantifiers, so nonclitic
datives cannot be DP-like like clitic datives. Speakers vary in
whether fronted datives license postverbal floating quantifiers. Locative license
neither. Bobaljik (2003) reviews floating quantifiers in French; the
distinctions in (127), (128) are discussed in Kayne (1975: 2.II), Herslund
(1988: 218), Zaring (1991: 367), Roberge and Troberg (2007: 300f.). 59
ciple agreement, as the subject of BE does generally elsewhere. Nonreflexive dative clitics do
sporadically control participle agreement elsewhere in Romance (Haiman and Benincà 1992:
139f., D'Alessandro and Roberts 2010: note 1; cf. generally Rezac 2008ab).
(i) Elles se sont décrit( % es) l'une à l'autre.
They(F) SE are described( % PLF) one to the other
59 The description is subject to some caveats. In the neighbouring Romance languages, dative clitics
do not license bare floating quantifiers, and so also for some French speakers, particularly
with indirect objects, but for the speakers relevant here all dative clitics do so; cf. further Kayne
(1975: 2.14), Herslund (1988: 236), Sportiche (1996: 232f., 270 note 9) (the difference might relate
to the availability DP beside à-PP indirect objects in older French, Zink 1997: 181, 281).
Postparticipial à + floating quantifiers are somewhat possible with those locative clitics that
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