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Expletive NPs in Object-Position

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Thomas Stroik*
Affiliation:
Morehead State University

Extract

Chomsky (1981, 1986b) formulates the Theta Criterion so that it prohibits non-argument NPs such as the expletives it and there from occurring in theta-marked positions. One consequence of this formulation is that raising-to-object analyses for (1) are disallowed because they would permit an expletive to occupy an object position, a position which is theta-marked by the verb:

    (1)
  1. John believes there to be a woman outside.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1990

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