Comments on “Referential CPs and DPs: An operator movement account”

This paper attempts a novel and impressive assimilation of embedded clauses which predicts the distribution of Main Clause Phenomena in these clauses. Simplifying somewhat, the proposal is that a certain class of Main Clause Phenomena, namely argument fronting, are blocked by covert operator movement. Some embedded clauses have operator movement and these block argument fronting; others don’t and these allow argument fronting. Three environments are examined in this paper where argument fronting, a representative Main Clause Phenomenon, is blocked: temporal clauses, conditional clauses, and factive clauses. If these environments can be demonstrated to have the relevant kind of operator movement, then the paper will have succeeded in its goals. In this discussion, I will consider the first two cases only briefly. The first case considered is that of temporal clauses and here there is clear evidence for operator movement from the existence of high/low construals and presence of island effects.