On Extraction From NPS

This paper sheds new light on the conditions governingextraction from NPs. A close examination ofwh-extraction out of object NPs reveals thatpreviously unnoticed semantic factors play a greater role than has beenrecognized. In particular, we find that NPs lacking`participant' structure do not permit wh-extraction at all, and that certain NPs permit extraction even when theyare definite. At the same time, the prohibition onwh-extraction from subject NPs is shown to be a purely syntacticphenomenon which arises from the particular way in which the Extended Projection Principle is satisfied in English.