The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

260 The syntax of early EnglishHere the gap t ifollowing the verb understand is the result of moving OP i,justas in (5), but the verb reading in the adjunct clause also has an object gap.Parasitic gaps like this can occur under certain conditions if a sentence featuresan instance of wh-movement, as in (20). NP-movement, as in the passivein (21), does not license parasitic gaps.(20) What report idid they file t iwithout reading pg carefully?(21) *This report iwas filed t iwithout reading pg carefully.Using parasitic gaps as a diagnostic for the type of movement that a ‘real’ gapis due to, we may conclude from the presence of the parasitic gap in (19) that‘easy-to-please’ must indeed be an instance of wh-movement. 3The present-day English evidence therefore suggests that (5) gives a reasonablerepresentation of the structure of the infinitival clause in the ‘easy-toplease’construction.(5) John iwas [ APeasy [ CPOP i[ IPPRO to convince t i]]]What remains a thorny issue is the status of the matrix subject in this construction,i.e. John in (5). The point is that the relevant adjectives (the members ofwhat may be labelled the easy-class of adjectives) can also take a dummysubject it, as in (22).(22) It was easy to convince John.In other cases, such as that of the verb seem, as given in (23) and (24), thepossibility of having the dummy subject it is generally taken to show that thepredicate does not theta-mark its subject.(23) It seems John has eaten all the bread.(24) John seems to have eaten all the bread.According to the theta-criterion of Chomsky (1981), a noun phrase, and alsoa chain consisting of a moved NP and its trace(s), must have one and only onetheta-role, i.e. it should have one of the roles AGENT, THEME, RECIPIENT,etc., but not two of them. The dummy subject it, however, as its name implies,does not need a theta-role. A sentence like (23) is therefore taken to show thatseem does not assign a theta-role to its subject. Hence, it is standardly assumedthat in (24) John has moved into the matrix subject position from the positionof the subject of the infinitival clause, which has a theta-role (specifically, the3Since we are only using parasitic gaps as a diagnostic to decide between NP-movementand wh-movement, we merely note that (19) patterns with (20) rather than (21),leaving aside the precise analysis and status of parasitic gaps (they are often felt toresult in sentences that are less than perfect). For various ideas and suggestions, seeChomsky (1982, 1986) and references given there.