On the Form of Chains: Criterial Positions and ECP Effects.

On the Forn of Chains: Criterial Positions and ECP Effects. The paper starts with a discussion of the functional motivation of syntactic movement, an issue which is connected to the principles determining the form of syntactic chains. Special attention is devoted to the principles which define under what conditions syntactic movement can start, and under what conditions it must stop. I will then focus on a principle which has the effect of freezing movement when certain syntactic configurations are created (Criterial Freezing), and will illustrate several applications of the freezing principle in the domain of A’-syntax, with special reference to the derivation of questions and relatives. The last part of the paper will use the criterial approach to revisit a classical issue of Government-Binding (GB) syntax: the asymmetry between subjects and objects in extraction processes from embedded domains. The goal here is to show that Criterial Freezing makes possible a satisfactory alternative to the Empty Category Principle (ECP) of GB models, one which is fully consistent with basic tenets of the Minimalist Program and which compares favorably in terms of empirical coverage and explanatory capacity with ECP.