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

14 MARIA LUISA RIVERO AND ANGELA RALLIb. CeteS ja.read-PRES.2SG it'You are reading it.'c. Cet Ceti ja!read-IMP.2SG it•Read it!'In minimalist terms, the difference between syntactic and stylistic V movementsresides in the Last Resort Principle: syntactic rules apply to check formalfeatures, while the stylistic rules operate in the PF branch to satisfy an outputcondition, not to check features. In other ways, stylistic and syntactic V movementsare similar. The stylistic rule raising V to the checking domain of anattractor most closely resembles a syntactic rule, as when V incorporates to li inC in questions: (Pitani se) iel li e knigata ~(\ wonder if) he has read the book?'.Still, this Bulgarian process is not driven by Last Resort, as no formal featuresin the attractor match those of the raising V; rather, V structurally supports li.As to Greek, earlier stages resemble Bulgarian in displaying V rules withstylistic properties. In Bulgarian and medieval Greek, imperative Vs like that in(17c) can also follow the clitic; see (18a) and (18b). That is, stylistic rules donot check features, so they need not be obligatory.(18) a. Ela i ml kai.il BlgCome and me tell-IMP.2SG'Come and tell me!'b. Alla me eipe. MedGrkOther.things me tell-IMP.2'Tell me other things.'Standard Greek, Cappadocian, and Cypriot Greek have undergone changes. InStandard Greek, clitic pronouns do not require support, finite V raising past aclitic is not found, and imperative raising is a formal feature-checking orsyntactic operation and thus obligatory. In Cappadocian and Cypriot Greek,clitics require support, as in Bulgarian, and a rule raising finite Vs reminiscentof Bulgarian exists, but imperative raising is as in Standard Greek. Thus Greekis interesting in that it shows a diachronic connection between stylistic andsyntactic imperative raising, and changes in this rule support the view thateconomy conditions like Last Resort define a core grammar that can be violatedbut only at a cost, which influences diachronic change. That is, irrespective ofclitic requirements, imperative raising has been reinterpreted as the less costlyformal feature-checking operation.To conclude, contributions in this volume cover from an updated perspectivea variety of topics on syntax and the PF and LF interfaces, including verbmovement, the internal structure of DPs, clitics, complementizers, modal particles,agreement, negation, recent theoretical debates such as the pro/PROcontroversy, control, and checking theory. The cross-linguistic perspective eachpaper affords is intended to deepen knowledge of what counts as universal, eventhough it may appear disguised as variation. We hope that those concerned withquestions of generative theory and Universal Grammar, formal syntacticians,