Resumptive pronouns in Turkish

Abstract

This study analyzes the distributional properties of resumptive pronouns, relative clause formation and the nature of the A'-dependency between the resumptive pronoun and its antecedent in Turkish. With respect to the distributional properties, it is argued that Empty Category Principle can account for the alternation between the traces and corresponding resumptive pronouns. The basic claim in this thesis is that resumptive pronouns in Turkish relative clauses are syntactic variables which are bound by a null operator in Spec-CP position. This claim is supported with the facts observed by considering the Condition C effects (strong and weak cross-over phenomena), coordination structures and parasitic gap constructions in Turkish. It has also been noted that relative clause constructions in Turkish can either be derived by empty operator movement proposed by Chomsky (1977, 1981) and head raising by Kayne (1994). The description of the distributional properties of the resumptive pronouns indicates that they are optional in some syntactic positions and obligatory in some others. There is also one position in which the occurrence of a resumptive pronoun is prohibited. For all of syntactic environments in which a resumptive pronoun occurs, it is pointed out that Empty Category Principle (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 1986b, Rizzi 1990) can account for the optionality vs. obligatoriness of the resumptive pronoun.It is pointed in this study that relative clauses in Turkish can both be derived by operator movement in Chomsky (1977, 19891) and head raising in Kayne (1994). However, the restrictive reading and free ordering of relative clauses among other prenominal modifiers indicate that relative clauses are not complementation structures as Kayne (1994) argues, but are adjunction structures with respect to their relations to the head noun.In conclusion, the facts about the distributional properties of the resumptive pronouns, relative clauses, reconstruction effects and Condition C violations observed in this study are analyzed to support the claim that RPs are syntactic variables at the level of S-Structure.