A Study On English Complementizer That Within The Framework Of Optimality Theory

The complementizer that marks the declarative meaning of the introduced clauses, with its position in front of the subject of the clause. The complementizer and the introduced clause can make up a complementizer phrase. In English, the complementizer that is optional in most relative clauses and complement clauses; that is obligatorily present in subject clauses, embedded topicalized clauses, negative preposing constructions and so on, and that is absent in embedded questions and in interrogatives with the extraction of a subject. Thus, in this thesis, we employ Optimality Theory (Prince&Smolensky,1991) to analyze these phenomena, in which no former approach in generative grammar seems to have ever reached explanatory adequacy.OT was first put forward by Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky in Arizona Phonological Conference held by Arizona University in USA in1991and has been in recent years developing to be a universal linguistic theory. OT-based syntax is an attempt to extend the basic working mechanism of OT phonology into the domain of syntax and the basic idea underlying OT phonology is, in principle, equally well applicable to OT-based syntax.There are at least two possible approaches to analyze the complementizer that in OT. Both claim that the presence and the absence of the complementizer that are related to the same set of candidates. One approach explains that the winning candidates in one and the same competition have the same constraint profile, so that if one emerges as optimal, the other is also optimal. In the second approach, the notion of a constraint tie is provided to explain the optionality of the complementizer that. Grimshaw (1997) chooses the former approach, and Pesetsky (1998) chooses the latter, in their respective analyses of the optionality of the English complementizer that. This thesis is in favor of Pesetsky’s approach and gives the ranking of the constraints as PURE-EP>> LE(CP)<> TEL>> DCP>> Gov(t)>> ADJACENCY.By adopting an OT-based syntax approach, this thesis is aimed at presenting an OT analysis of the distribution of the complementizer that in relative clauses, complement clauses and interrogatives.Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, there are four chapters in the thesis. Chapter1introduces the definition and features of the complementizer that and reviews the previous studies on that in generative grammar. Chapter2elaborates the theoretical framework:OT and OT-based syntax. Chapter3discusses the construction of constraint hierarchy. Chapter4offers an OT account of the distribution of the complementizer that in relative clauses, complement clauses and interrogatives.