A Dilemma with Accounts of Right Node Raising

A DILEMMA WITH ACCOUNTS OF RIGHT NODE RAISING Bradley Larson University of Maryland There is a dilemma in current studies of right node raising (RNR): the main approaches to the construction make fundamentally contradictory predictions that account for overlapping sets of data. In this squib, I argue that no single current analysis can account for the range of data, and I argue against the possibility that the analyses work in concert to account for the data. That is, given that each current analysis accounts for some but not all of the documented data, there are two logical possibilities: either none of the analyses are correct, or more than one analysis is correct, each in its limited purview, and duties are shared such that all the data are accounted for. I argue for the former conclusion. Under the second option just mentioned, RNR is derived either by means of one particular operation or by means of a different one. That is, the term right node raising is better viewed as a surface-level description for a family of derivations: some stem from applying the first operation, the others stem from applying the second (as argued by Barros and Vicente (2011)). This view departs sharply from the assumptions of most work on RNR and requires critical investigation. Such investigation reveals no motivation to analyze RNR as being derived in two separate ways. This being the case, the RNR dilemma remains.

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