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SUMMARY:Why uninterpretable features? - Dr Hedde Zeijlstra (Amsterdam Univ
 ersity)
DTSTART:20070607T160000Z
DTEND:20070607T173000Z
UID:TALK7461@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Theresa Biberauer
DESCRIPTION:*Why uninterpretable features?*\n\nEver since the introduction
  of the Minimalist Program the notion of uninterpretable features has occu
 pied a central position in syntactic theory.\nBut what exactly is an unint
 erpretable feature? Why do we need them? And how can their existence be mo
 tivated?\n\nIn the first part of this talk I argue that the existence of u
 ninterpretable features can be demonstrated by exploring doubling phenomen
 a\, i.e. phenomena where one semantic operator is manifested more than onc
 e in the morpho-syntax. I discuss two cases\, Negative Concord (1) and Mod
 al Concord (2)\nwhere this is the case.\n\n(1)      Gianni non ha telefona
 to a nessuno              [Italian]\n\n    Gianni not has called nobody\n\
 n    'Gianni didn't call anybody'\n\n(2)      All students must obligatori
 ly register themselves\n\n'It is obligatory that all students register the
 mselves'\n         \nIn my talk I present a unified analysis of both conco
 rd phenomena that takes Concord to be the spell-out of relation between a 
 single interpretable feature\nand one or more uninterpretable features.\n\
 nIn the second part I will discuss the motivation of uninterpretable featu
 res.\nIf natural language\, in some sense\, is a (semi-)perfect system\, w
 hy would it exhibit uninterpretable material on such a large scale? In thi
 s part of the talk I argue that the Strongest Minimalist Thesis (SMT)\, wh
 ich takes natural language to be an optimal solution to interface conditio
 ns\, allows for multiple\, equally complex\, options. I demonstrate that b
 y exhibiting uninterpretable features languages\, languages can mark the p
 resence of covert semantic operators by simply adding a marker onto anothe
 r lexical item. This\nenables natural language to convey meaning in a (pho
 nologically) much more economical way.\n\nFinally\, I argue that this unde
 rlying mechanism is the source of syntactic operations such as Move and Ag
 ree. Moreover I show that this analysis results in a view on parameters th
 at takes them to be a by-product of the SMT.\n
LOCATION:G-R04\, English Faculty
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