A Phrase Structure Account of Scandinavian Extraction Phenomena

It is shown that while a straightforward extension of the framework to cover the Scandinavian data is possible, it leads to an increase in generative capacity of the theory so that it no longer provides grammars only for context-free languages.

Abstract

0.0 The aim of this paper is threefold: (i) to present data from Scandinavian languages that any general theory of island constraints must account for; (ii) to describe these data in the framework being developed in Gazdar (this volume), Sag (this volume), Gazdar, Pullum and Sag (1980), and to show that while a straightforward extension of the framework to cover the Scandinavian data is possible, it leads to an increase in generative capacity of the theory so that it no longer provides grammars only for context-free languages; and (iii) to sketch a theory of island constraints that transfers some of the burden of explanation from the syntax to processing mechanisms on the one hand and to discourse organization on the other.