Word formation is syntactic: Raising in nominalizations

Abstract

According to Chomsky (1970), raising to subject and raising to object may not take place inside nominalizations. This claim has largely been accepted as fact ever since. For instance, Newmeyer (2009) repeats the claim as crucial evidence for the Lexicalist Hypothesis, the view that word formation takes place in a component of the grammar separate from the phrasal syntax. This paper shows with attested examples and survey data that the claim is false: raising to subject and raising to object are both grammatical inside nominalizations. This argues for a purely syntactic model of word formation, and against Lexicalist accounts. Additionally, the paper shows that one argument against syntactic accounts of nominalization, that from coordination, does not go through, clearing the way for the most parsimonious type of theory: one with only one combinatorial component, not two distinct ones for phrases versus words.

Keywords

• syntactic word formation
• raising
• nominalization
• the Lexicalist Hypothesis
• experimental syntax