The study of Persian Clitic Left Dislocation construction in the Minimalist Program

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Ph.D. student of Linguistics, Department of linguistics, Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of linguistics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

The present study investigates how the Persian Clitic Left Dislocation construction (CLLD) is derived within the framework of minimalist program. In CLLD an element of a sentence is located at the beginning of the clause instead of being in its canonical position and its main position in the sentence is necessarily occupied by a resumptive clitic. In studying such construction in different languages, researchers always try to answer the question whether the initial position is the result of movement or it is base-generated. Chomsky (1977) and Cinque (1990) are among the linguists who believe that initial position in CLLD is base-generated. On the other hand, Lopez (2009) and Dobrovie-Sorin (1990) try to show that this position is derived by movement. Lee (2016) believes that this disagreement is because of the hybrid characteristics of CLLD. As an example, sensitivity to strong islands shows that movement takes place in this construction; but insensitivity to weak islands or not showing weak cross over (WCO) effect can challenge the movement approach to CLLD. Rizzi (1997) believes that only constructions which derived by quantificational Aʹ-movement show WCO effect; so Lee (2016) considers CLLD as the result of non-quantificational Aʹ-movement; so insensitivity to weak islands can’t challenge the movement idea of CLLD derivation.  In this research we study the syntactic features of Persian CLLD to investigate whether the initial position of this structure is base-generated or it’s the result of movement. And if it is the result of movement, what kind of movement is involved.

Keywords

References

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