Triggers

Auteurs

• Anne Breitbarth

Paramètres

• Manuels
• Manuels universitaires

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The concept of 'trigger' is central to Chomsky's Minimalist Program, positing that certain movements in syntax are prompted by properties of target positions, such as the movement of noun phrases to receive nominative case. In contemporary syntactic theory, these mechanisms are believed to govern all movement, but the range of allowed triggers is quite limited. This restrictive view raises several challenges, particularly whether all necessary triggering elements for various types of displacement in natural language can be independently justified. Additionally, the theory's reliance on the idea that all movement is obligatory raises questions about seemingly optional movements. Are features sufficient to express triggering functions universally? More fundamentally, is all movement truly a result of checking trigger features? The role of external factors, like prosody, in triggering movement also poses a challenge to a rigid trigger theory, suggesting that some triggered movements might stem from interface conditions. The fourteen contributions in this volume address these questions, examining a wide array of languages, including Afrikaans, Breton, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Gungbe, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kiswahili, and Romanian. The empirical and theoretical insights presented are poised to significantly influence the ongoing evolution of the trigger concept within syntactic theory.

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• Année de publication: 2004