The Syntactic Derivations of Split Antecedent Relative Clause Constructions

Abstract

一個關係子句可以修飾兩個不相鄰名詞的組合，如 Mary met a man and John met a woman who knew each other well 中的關係子句 who knew each other well 修飾 a man 與 a woman 的組合體。 本文提出這種句式中的兩個先行詞本來是兩個並列項，它們所構成的並列成分才是關係子句的真正被修飾成分。兩個先行詞不相鄰的原因是它們分別都經歷了橫向位移。這項研究顯示了橫向位移的解釋力。

In this paper, I propose a syntactic derivation for Split Antecedent Relative Clause Constructions such as Mary met a man and John met a woman who knew each other well. I claim that the two antecedents of such a construction are originally two conjuncts of a coordinate nominal. Then each has undergone a sideward movement, landed in a new working site, and been selected by a verb. After that, a coordinate clausal complex is constructed. In the old working site, a complex nominal is also constructed, in which the relative clause takes the remnant coordinate nominal as its antecedent. Finally, the complex nominal adjoins to the coordinate clausal complex. This analysis shows how the freedom in the selection of the landing site gained from sideward movement makes the syntactic derivations of this special type of relative clause construction possible, while at the same time avoiding the problems of the alternative three-dimensional analysis.