On Non-simultaneous Phases on Non-simultaneous Phases

2005 According to the phase theory, the recent development of the Minimalist Program, sentences are built in smaller chunks––phases. Each phase starts out with its own numeration and is completed when the structure constructed in a phase is sent to the two interfaces, PF and LF. Thus, because of simultaneous Spell-Out, every element participating in the derivation should be both pronounced and interpreted within the same phase. But we know that certain items can be interpreted lower than where they are pronounced, as in cases of total reconstruction, or pronounced lower then where they get interpreted as a result of covert movement. Total reconstruction is analyzed as a result, following copy theory of movement, of the deletion of the lower PF copies following some potentially tricky lower-copy-deletion algorithm. Much less clear is the derivation of covert movement. We can again derive a solution using another algorithm that would delete the higher PF copy and the iv lower LF copy. Needless to say, these algorithms don't really seem to be the optimal solution. A different approach to the two phenomena is possible if we accept the existence of non-simultaneous phases. As argued by Megerdoomian (2003), Felser (2004), and Marušič and Žaucer (2004), at the point of Spell-Out, the structure built in a phase can be spelled-out to a single interface (either only to PF or only to LF). Accepting the idea of single interface spell-out, we can derive the two phenomena of non-aligned pronounciation and interpretation. If at a certain point in the derivation an element is only spelled-out to a single interface, what has not been sent off can still participate in the derivation and move on. In this way the structural positions of syntactic item's interpretation and its pronounciation are different. The main goal of this thesis is to show how the machinery of non-simultaneous Spell-Out can be used to derive both Total reconstruction and Quantifier Raising within syntax proper. The remainder of the thesis is aimed at providing further arguments for the existence of non-simultaneous Spell-Out. The arguments involve somehow long discussions of two very interesting constructions, the Slovenian FEEL-LIKE construction and the Slovenian non-finite clausal complementation. Acknowledgments I will finish writing this on the very day I will file (actually someone else will do it for me) this object of despise, source of malnutrition, and cause of despair, constant depression and general lack of will. At the …