Case, the EPP and Syntactic Markedness in the Locative Inversion Construction of English

Abstract

Focusing on locative inversion, this paper explores data which have the same propositional meaning but show differences in non-propositional ways. A particular concern of this study is the correlation between the presence (or absence) of movement and interpretation. We propose that a movement operation can change the information structure of the moved element, advancing these following key points: (i) We have to allow for EPP-wise strong and weak marking of Nominative NPs and argument PPs when Agree applies. (ii) EPP-wise strong and weak marking of the Goal in the course of Agree operation yields different interpretations in the interpretive component. (i ii) In particular, strong Nominative Case-marked NPs which move to Spec of T are interpreted as either old or new information in the interpretive component while the weak ones which stay in their base-generated position are interpreted as new information. (iv) Unlike strong Nominative NPs, strong PPs which move to Spec of T are interpreted as old information in the interpretive component while the weak ones which stay in-situ are interpreted as either old or new information.