Null operator-variable structures, predication and the interpretive interface

This dissertation proposes an analysis of the syntax, semantics and distribution of the predication relation linking a CP-adjoined expression to a predicative CP node as in clefts and topicalization structures (cf. Chomsky 1977; Heggie 1993). This relation is referred to as A-bar predication.; This work argues for a more streamlined theory of the interface between syntax and semantics in which A-bar predicational structures always involve an XP operator-variable structure, to the exclusion of X{dollar}sp0{dollar} operator-variable structures argued for by Baltin (1991) on the basis of predicate cleft data, and Iatridou (1991) on the basis of clitic left-dislocation. This also eliminates the need for Koopman's (1983) long head movement, and Dobrovie-Sorin's (1990) nonquantificational wh-movement.; This streamlining follows from the introduction of a new type of null operator: the derived silent operator (DSO). DSOs are XP categories in SpecC, emptied of phonological content after the application of movements. Thus, predicate clefts result from the movement of a derived silent predicate-level operator made available to the grammar by the obligatory movements of the verbs and their arguments. Clitic left-dislocation results from the operator movement of a DP category, after cliticization of the D head.; DSO analyses challenge the idea that operators do not have content, and that their sole function is to derive a configuration that allows for the natural language equivalent to the {dollar}lambda{dollar}-abstractor. The derived silent operators proposed in this dissertation have content. The VP operator of predicate clefts encodes theta relations which determine the kind of properties that the derived VP-level operator will quantify over. Similarly, the DP operator, resulting from cliticization, has the semantics of a determiner, with properties of A-bar predicational structures following from these semantics.; Lastly, it is observed that in a theory that allows for null operators, the range of A-bar predicational structures is greater than traditionally thought. The possibility that null operators allow for covert clitic left-dislocation structures proposed by Zwart (1993) is investigated. This hypothesis is shown to provide an interesting treatment of weak island asymmetries.