A Study Of The Syntactic Features Of English Existentials

English existential is a construction of special properties, whichconsist of the expletive subject there, an unaccusative predicate verbdenoting existence, appearance or disappearance, an indefinite NPsituated in the postverbal position and a prepositional phrase or anadverb indicating location (locative phrase). Syntactic studies on Englishexistentials mainly focus on the following issues: the case requirementof the expletive there (whether the expletive there needs a case) and therelationship between there and the locative phrase (LP); the caseassignment of the postverbal NP and the Definiteness Fffect; thederivation of English existentials.In the previous studies, assumptions from different perspectiveshave been made over the years to account for these puzzles posed byEnglish existentials. In Case Transmission Theory Chomsky (1981, 1986)proposes that the expletive there and its associate (the postverbal NP)form a chain and thus the nominative case is transmitted from theexpletive there to the NP. There acts as a case transmitter and has noneed for a case. By proposing Direct Case Assignment Belletti(1988)claims that the unaccusative existential verb, though deprived of theability to assign accusative case, retains the capacity to assign partitivecase to the postverbal NP, based on the Definiteness Effect displayed by the postverbal NP. The expletive there only acts as a placeholder.Chomsky (1995) proposes a modified version of Case TransmissionTheory—LF Affix Theory by positing that in the existential constructionthe expletive there and the postverbal NP constitute a single object at LFas a result of LF raising of the postverbal NP with there adjoined to theassociate. Again, while lacking a case feature, there appears as an LFAffix. Hazout (2004b) argues that the postverbal NP figures as thepredicate in an embedded clausal complement of be with expletive thereas its subject. Thus, the postverbal NP has no need to get its caseassigned or checked. Driven by the requirement of case, there moves to[Spec,IP] and becomes the grammatical subject. However, none of theseanalyses adequately explain the problems concerning the existentials. Onthe basis of a careful reexamination about the previous research, in thisthesis we have tried to put forward our own opinions related to theproblems of English existentials and to provide a unified account of thederivation process of this construction within the Minimalist Program sothat we can have a deeper understanding of this particular construction.In terms of the definition of English existentials, we hold that thelocative phrase (LP) is an indispensable part of English existentials,whether it appears overtly or covertly. We also provide a tentativeclassification of English existentials which have been discussed in theliterature: one standard oattern and four variants. The standard pattern is: There+be+Indefinite NP+LP; the four variants ate: There+Unaccusative Verbs+Indefinite NP+LP; There+Unaccusative Verbs+Indefinite NP+LP; LP+be/Unaccusative Verbs+Indefinite NP; There+be+[Indefinite NP+Modifier]_NP.We propose that the previous assumption that there has no need forcase is inadequate. Though it lacks number feature and isφ-incompletein essence, expletive there has person feature and case feature, whichcan be attested by the empirical evidences from its occurrence inexceptional case-marking (ECM)construction and complex infinitiveconstruction. We also find that there is a close relationship between thereand LP, which is similar to that between expletive it and a CP. On thereexamination of some relevant studies, we suppose that LP acts as theassociate of expletive there in English existentials, We further assumethat the LP, similar to CP, undergoes extraposition in the derivation ofEnglish. existentials.Following Collins (2005), we assume that extraposition is leftwardmovement: the LP in existentials is extraposed into the specifier positionof a functional phrase XP, while the expletive there moves from the[Spec,vP] into [Spec,IP] driven by a case feature. By investigating theuse of the existential be, we provide further evidences to show thatBelletti's partitive case assignment is reasonable, which is thenincorporated into our extraposition model to account for case assignment of the postverbal NP.Our hypothesis turns out to be plausible in explaining the derivationof the standard pattern as well as the variants of English existentials. Wefocus on the relation between the standard pattern and the third variant.We assume that the two are derived from the same deep structure. Thestandard pattern is derived as a result of the extraposition of LP in thethird variant and the insertion and movement of there. During thederivation, extraposition is a crucial step.