On the locus and licensing of edge features

Abstract

Assuming Chomsky’s (2000; 2001) phase-based model, this paper deals with the issue of how the features that trigger successive cyclic A’-movement are lexically encoded and licensed. Modifying and expanding on work by Nunes (2014; 2016a), I argue that UG allows these “edge features” to be lexically hosted by phase heads (see Chomsky 2000) or moveable elements (see Bošković 2007) and that each choice has several intricate empirical consequences. In addition, I contend that like any other uninterpretable feature (see, e.g., Pesetsky & Torrego 2007), edge features may be intrinsically valued or unvalued and each of these choices may be associated with distinct types of allomorphy involving phase heads found across languages.

Keywords

• successive cyclic A’-movement
• edge features
• subject-object asymmetry
• that-trace effects
• complementizer agreement
• anti-locality