A Minimalist Approach to the Kam Construction in Taiwanese

Author: Chun-yin Doris Chen(Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University), Shih-chung Henry Shen(Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 43, No.1
Date：April 1998
Pages：15-26
DOI：10.6210/JNTNULL.1998.43(1).02

Abstract：

The main purpose of this paper is to examine within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1995) the kam sentences in Taiwanese and argue that kam should be considered as a raising verb taking an AGRsP as its complement. It is proposed that AGRs contains a strong feature, [+Q] (cf. Shen, 1997), so kam needs to move to AGRS for feature checking before Spell Out under the Economy Principle. It is claimed that X° movement should be classified into three types (cf. Rizzi, 1990), and Taiwanese is subject to the third type of X° movement. Furthermore, AGRs is assumed to have a [+focus] feature (cf. Ouhalla, 1992), which unlike [+Q], will be discharged to Spec of AGRSP via Spechead Checking, and hence a covert movement of XP to Spec of AGRsP for feature checking after Spell Out is motivated by Procrastinate. Finally, additional evidence from islandhood is found to support the present analysis.

Keywords：the Kam Construction, Taiwanese, Minimalist, GB Theory

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