AGAINST “PURE” EPP CHECKING: EVIDENCE FROM FURTHER-RAISING

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to throw some light on the issue of whether we need to appeal to an EPP feature (EPP-F) in order to account for why Tense heads demand that a specifier be created. I briefly review Bošković’s (2002) proposal that there is no “pure” EPP checking, and that instances of DP movement to Spec-Tense can be motivated independently of an EPP-F in Tense. I argue that there are some problems with his conclusion because of confounding factors surrounding the data that he considers. I then provide data from Spanish further-raising constructions (see Fernández-Salgueiro, 2011), which constitute a much clearer test bed for Bošković’s hypothesis. It turns out that the further-raising data provides stronger and less controversial empirical support for Bošković’s claim that the EPP-F should be eliminated from the grammar.

Keywords

• EPP
• further-raising
• Case
• A-Movement