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

(10) a.b.Kojwho//' dudeQ gave-3SGknigatabook-thenato•Who on earth gave the book to Olga?'NaTo•WasLAST RESORT AND V MOVEMENT 209derivations involving a stylistic process with the structural output of rules of thecomputational system but which nevertheless fail to involve formal featurechecking.Several phenomena suggest that the PF checking domain requirement imposedby Bulgarian li can be met without formal feature checking. In a fewwords, li is highly unselective in its requirement from a feature perspective.First, we just saw that both nonfinite and finite verbs are attracted to thisfunctional head, which suggests that neither raising head can be intrinsicallyequipped with the putative matching formal feature. One of the main uses of liis interrogative, as in (3) and (7), so it could be assumed that Q is checked inthese questions. However, while a standard assumption is that Q can reside in(finite) inflection and raise to C, here it would have to reside in the nonfinite Vin Pit am [cel li e knigata]. Second, phrases that front to Spec-CP in questionswith // can be of the wh-type, as in (10a) but also of the noninterrogative typein (I0b).Olga li dadoxte knigata?Olga Q gave-2SG book-theit to Olga that you gave the book?'Olga?OlgaThis also suggests that li has no formal feature to be checked against the featureof the fronted phrase, so it need not impose feature matching, providing supportfor the idea that the verb moves in PF to satisfy an external requirement of li.Thus, fronting to Spec-CP in the computational system as in (10) checks anabstract formal feature either on C or on Spee-CP (but, crucially, not on li),places an overt constituent in the checking domain of li, and satisfies the externalPF condition imposed by this item. Then, by general economy, stylisticverb movement in PF cannot subsequently apply.Rudin, King, and Izvorski (1996) argue that on the one hand //' may containan optional focus feature that attracts an NP for formal feature checking in caseslike (I0b), and that on the other hand this feature is absent if the verb raises to li(recall that fronted phrases are interpreted as foci or topics but verbs fronted bystylistic processes never are). In an earlier work (Rivero 1997) I followed Rudin(1993) and took li' to contain a focus feature as well but I now think that thisidea cannot be correct. Na Olga in (IOb) is undoubtedly a focus but this does notimply that the lexical entry li bears the required strong formal feature, since inthe corresponding declarative clause without li in (I I) na Olga is also a focus.Blg(II) Na Olga dadoxte knigata.To Olga gave-2SG book-he'It was to Olga that you gave the book.'BlgArguments to the effect that the phrase before li is a focus can be replicated forequivalent fronted phrases in declarative sentences without li, as in (I I), so the