Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

How to lift a flat FOFC with the hierarchical cascade cartography

The modification that Biberauer, Holmberg and Roberts (2014) brought to the original FOFC (Final-Over-Final Constraint on word-order of Holmberg (2000)) limited its application domain to one Extended Projection at a time (the nominal and the verbal Extended Projections). The purpose was to accommodate cross-category counterexamples to the original generalization. I observe that restricting FOFC to one Extended Projection flattens the generalization. By erasing its hierarchical dimension, the restriction reduces FOFC to a linear permutation rule.

From a theoretical point-of-view, FOFC limited to one Extended Projection applies rules to complements only, denying the specifiers. However, as presented in the Cartographic Enterprise (Shlonsky 2010), within the X’ phrase structure of language, both the complement of a phrase and its specifier are X’-phrases themselves. The tree graph of a human language phrase grows on the left branch as well as on the right branch. Therefore, any linearization rule written for a phrase must be applicable to its full hierarchical structure.

From a typological point-of-view, data as old as Greenberg (1963) detect cross-categorical patterns of word-order, leading to universals that show a dependency between word-order in left and right branches. For example:

“Universal 21. If some or all adverbs follow the adjective they modify, then the language is one in which the qualifying adjective follows the noun and the verb precedes its nominal object as the dominant order.”

To meet the need for a generalization that applies hierarchically, I will first present Cinque’s (2023) modifier-of-modifier left-branch cascades. I will then present Cinque’s (2024) account of cross-linguistically pervasive word-order patterns with reference to markedness of movement types. Cinque observes that the Head of each subprojection can move within its projection, without pied piping or with pied piping. In the latter case, the unmarked whose-pictures pied piping can follow the marked pictures-of-whom pied piping. These properties characterize the attested and possible patterns.

The advantage of Cinque’s model is that, while covering the same possible orders as in FOFC, its domain of application extends to hierarchical structures. Its design integrates the basic X’ phrase structure, where the specifier and the complement of the phrase are phrases themselves. It further reveals a correlation between the gradience of movement markedness and the statistical prevalence of word-order patterns among languages of the world.

References (within the abstract)

Biberauer, T., Holmberg, A., & Roberts, I. (2014). A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry, 45(2), 169-225.

Cinque, G. (2005). Deriving Greenberg's Universal 20 and its exceptions. Linguistic inquiry, 36(3), 315-332.

Cinque, G. (2023). On linearization: Toward a restrictive theory. MIT Press.

Cinque, G. (2024). On the Final-Over-Final Condition, the Head-Final Filter, and their exceptions. Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.

Greenberg, J. H. (1963). Some universals of grammar with reference to the order of meaningful elements. Universals of language, 2, 73-113.

Holmberg, A. (2000). Deriving OV Order in Finnish. In P. Svenonius (ed.), The Derivation of VO and OV. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 123-152.

Shlonsky, U. (2010). The cartographic enterprise in syntax. Language and linguistics compass, 4(6), 417-429.