Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

INTRODUCTION 5correspond to English 'Don't!' This last use finds no counterpart in AncientGreek or Sanskrit, and Joseph suggests that it could be a Balkan innovation thatspread through contact from one language to the other. The second type of study,which is of interest for the comparative syntax of Balkan languages, isexemplified by the discussion of a negative fused with an auxiliary, that is, thejoining of a negative marker with a verb to form a single word unit. Josephargues that there are reasons to consider the Greek indicative negator dhen, as inDhen idhe 'He did not see', a verbal affix similar to n't in English won't.According to Zwicky and Pullum (1983), English n't is not a syntacticallygenerated clitic but a morphologically generated affix. Joseph argues thattypologically speaking, negative fusion is a widespread phenomenon and thuscould have arisen independently in each of the Balkan languages that show it,and he suggests that certain developments in Tsakonian seem to lend support tothis view. As an aside, it should be noted that most recent generative reseachseems to fall into the category Joseph labels "comparative syntax of Balkanlanguages" and that most papers in this volume take such an approach in thestudy of these languages.Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin in "Head-to-Head Merge in Balkan Subjunctivesand Locality," Iliyana Krapova in "Subjunctives in Bulgarian and ModernGreek," and Anna Roussou in "Control and Raising in and out of SubjunctiveComplements" deal with raising (to subject), control, and obviation. Beforesummarizing the content of each of these papers, we wish to provide a backgroundas to why raising and control are very prominent topics of discussionwhen dealing with Balkan languages.A notable feature of the early development of generative theory is that finiteclauses are viewed as islands for control and raising operations, as reflected inconstraints such as the tensed-S condition of Chomsky (1973) or its successors.A consequence of this view is that discussions of raising to subject constructions,as in the French and Spanish examples in (1b) and (1d), and of controlpatterns, as in (2), are closely associated with nonfinite embedded clauses, mostnotably those with infinitives. (Hereafter embedded clauses are shown withinbrackets.)(1) a. // semble [que les enfants travaillent.] Fre'It seems that the children are working.'b. Les enfants semblent [t travailler.]"The children seem to work.'c. Parece [que los ninos estan aqui.} Spa'It seems that the children are here.'d. Los ninos parecen [t estar aqui.}'The children seem to be here.'(2) a. Brigitte vent [PRO chanter.] Freb. Brigida quiere [PRO cantar.] Spa'Brigitte wants to sing.'