Abstract for Tomoko Kawamura's talk

NPI connectivity and its focal analysis
Tomoko Kawamura (Stony Brook)
April 5, 2005 (Tuesday)
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM; Room 6417, the CUNY Graduate Center

Higgins (1973) observes that English pseudo-clefts show connectivity effects. Anaphors and NPIs within the clefted phrase can be lincensed, despite apparent lack of c-command.

(1) [What Mary took] was [a picture of herself].

(2) [What John didn't eat] was [any vegetables].

While Many analysts have tried to explain these phenomena in a uniform way, English it-cleft and Japanese pseudo-cleft constructions cast doubt on the uniformity assumption: they show the binding connecitivity, but fail show the NPI connectivity. I argue that NPI connectivity is a different phenomenon from binding connectivity, and specifically, I propose that NPIs in negated pseudoclefts are licensed in a way parallel to NPIs in negated because and focus constructions.