From the Complex NP Constraint to everything: On deep extractions across categories

Abstract The article establishes a new generalization concerning domains from which extraction is possible. Taking as the starting point the well-known difference between NPs and VPs regarding extraction, where extraction from Complex NPs is not possible while extraction from Complex VPs is possible, the article argues that the former represents a pervasive pattern found in many contexts, the latter being highly exceptional. More precisely, extraction is impossible not only from clausal but all complements of nouns. Furthermore, it is impossible from complements of prepositions and adjectives as well as ergative verbs. A deduction of the impossibility of extraction from the complements of lexical heads (other than non-ergative verbs) is proposed based on a new approach to phases (i.e. to what counts as a phase) and the Phase-Impenetrability Condition, as well as a particular implementation of Chomsky’s (2013) labeling algorithm. The analysis is extended to the Subject Condition effect and the that-trace effect.

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