Donnerstag, 9.00 Uhr
Recent works (e.g. Alexiadou 1994, Cinque (to appear)) propose that adverbs are licensed by feature-matching with an Xo head. This paper provides evidence, in the tradition of Jackendoff 1972, Zubizarreta 1987, that adverbs are primarily licensed rather by matching scope requirements to the semantic type of their LF c-command domain. For example, wisely in 1 requires an Event (=refuse the offer but ¹ must have refused the offer, which represents a Proposition), so it must follow must. I present three arguments [A-C].
(1) Carol (*wisely) must have (wisely) refused the offer.
(2) (Wisely,) they (wisely) will (wisely) have (wisely) refused to attend the meeting.
[A] Multiple positions. The scope theory directly predicts, correctly, multiple positions for adverbs (as in 2) and that the range of positions is contiguous. On feature-based theories, multiple positions must either result from movement from one base position, or else the adverbs must differ semantically. I show that movement analyses vastly weaken the theory, that many cases of no semantic difference exist; and that feature theories treat contiguous ranges as a mere accident.
[B] Ordering Restrictions. 3 shows (assuming has to be in Infl) that Infl can license wisely, yet 1 is bad with wisely before Infl. Feature theories cannot express this fact and also account for the unacceptability of probably in 3, while scope theories do so naturally, by assuming that must and probably represent the "edge" of Proposition, which wisely cannot modify.
(3) Carol wisely has (*probably) refused the offer.
(4) Marie fixed the cabinet for her brother in the yard with a screwdriver.
[C] Permutability of Different Classes. Adjuncts which do not take scope, such as the PP’s in 4, permute freely, unlike the scopal adverbs in 3. A general, scope-based theory of adverbial modification handles this directly if the PP’s add participants to an Event variable in an unordered way (Parsons 1990), while for the adverbs in 3 some orders cause semantic anomalies. On a feature theory this contrast, and the free PP ordering itself, is essentially a stipulation.
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