RAISING AS A FREE SYNTACTIC OPERATION: EVIDENCE FROM SERBIAN

This paper examines the syntactic properties of Serbian modal verb trebati ‘need’, which appears in environment ‘NP – ‘need’ finite da-clause’. I show that is a raising and preverbal NP (raised) subject. Trebati (φ-)agrees with only optionally, surprising since other verbs agree their subjects obligatorily. Furthermore, subject free to remain embedded clause, suggesting operation not triggered by need satisfy unvalued features on matrix T (contra e.g., Chomsky 1981, 2008). instead propose A-movement (of this kind) ‘free’; more precisely, it fully optional, can occur at any stage derivation (or not), constrained requirement output be well-formed. analysis accounts for full range data trebati, but also applied English-style constructions.