UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 14 (2002)
Compositionality, copy theory, and control
ANNABEL CORMACK & NEIL SMITH
Our ultimate concern is the mapping between representations
in the Language of Thought (in the sense of Fodor
1975) and representations at LF in some version of the Minimalist Program
(Chomsky 1995). We argue on a variety of grounds that such a mapping is direct
and that both these levels of representation must meet
the (same) condition of compositionality. We argue that Copy theory, in
particular in the version exploited for 'control' phenomena by Hornstein (1999), is inimical to any such condition and
must therefore be rejected. The evidence comes from the properties of
quantified NPs in English and the Caucasian language Tsez. Specifically we suggest a reanalysis of
'backward control' in Tsez, as described by Polinsky & Potsdam (2001, 2002), thereby removing a
major argument for copy theory. Our analysis does not however preclude an
assimilation of canonical control to raising, and we
provide an alternative to a Hornstein style analysis,
giving some justification for the exploitation of the combinator
R in Combinatorial Categorial Grammar.
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