there 구문과 장소논항

Abstract

This paper tries to show the following. First, it aims to show that in the English there-construction, the expletive there can be considered as a locative external argument within the Feature Movement Analysis proposed on the basis of the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995) and Lasnik (1995). Second, it will be proposed that the verbs in Nominative Case System are all subject to Burzio's Generalization. There has been a number of analyses proposed on English there-construction in the generative grammar tradition. Especially with the launch of the Minimalist Program, its analysis has taken on a renewed theoretical significance. In particular, Chomsky (1995) proposes that there is a pure expletive that lacks Case and phi-features but contains D feature, which suffices to satisfy EPP (strong D feature of tense). For Lasnik (1995), the expletive there bears a Case of its own, while the inherent partitive Case is the only Case available for the associate NP. This paper, however, points out problems of the analysis of there as an pure expletive or as a preposed locative predicate (Moro (1991), Hoekstra & Mulder (990». It is argued that the problems can be resolved if we consider the expletive there as a locative external argument, i.e. d-argument in the sense of Kratzer (1988). In addition to this, reconsidering the ideas of Belletti (1988), I argue that verbs in Nominative Case languages are all subject to Burzio's Generalization, because unaccusative verbs that assign inherent partitive Case to the internal argument NP do assign an external theta-role to there, the locative d-argument.