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

8Last Resort and V Movementin Balkan LanguagesMaria Luisa Rivero1. IntroductionThis essay deals with language typology and comparative syntax within theMinimalist program of Chomsky (1995). Taking both a synchronic and adiachronic perspective, it examines aspects of the syntax of verbs in two Balkanlanguages with close syntactic ties, Bulgarian (Big) and Greek (Grk). For Rivero(1994a), Blg and standard Modern Greek (MGrk) display similar clause structures.The two languages, however, differ considerably as to verb position, withcitation forms for Perfect Tenses already showing a clear contrast. Blg must displaythe verb before the auxiliary, as in Cel sum T have read' and not *Sumdel, while MGrk exhibits the auxiliary preceding the verb, as in Exo djavasiT have read' and not *djavasi exo. I argue that word order differences of thistype derive from movement processes affecting verbs. In Blg, a variety of operationsthat satisfy conditions of the PF interface raise verbs to the complementizerposition or C and apply after spell-out in the PF branch of the grammar.MGrk also raises a verb to C, but the movement applies in the syntaxbefore spell-out and satisfies conditions internal to the computational system.Earlier stages and some nonstandard varieties of Grk contrast with MGrk indisplaying verb operations in the PF branch of the grammar to satisfy externalconditions, so they have a closer resemblance to Blg.In the Minimalist program, the Last Resort Principle in (1) (Chomsky1995:257) regulates the necessity of movement:(1) Last Resort.Move F raises F to target K only if F enters into a checking relation witha sublabel of K.This condition requires that movement be to check the formal features of a functionalitem against the features of a (usually) lexical item that raises. Movementis licit only if it fulfills two clauses. First, the process must establish a200