On The Syntactic Derivation And Case Valuation Of Appositive Constructions

The appositive construction is a common existence among different types of languages.Not only is it of great significance to linguistic studies,but also it serves as a touchstone of linguistic theories.Tracing back to previous research,issues related to appositive constructions have aroused wide concern,such as their semantic content,pragmatic functions etc.From a syntactic perspective,in particular,three questions deserve special attention.First of all,a large number of grammarians have attempted to depict the derivation process of regular appositive constructions,such as“Wh is”Deletion（Smith 1964）,the Determiner Theory（Postal 1966）,the Appositive Theory（Delorme&Dougherty 1972）,the Adjunction Hypothesis（Jackendoff 1977）and the Specifying Coordination Hypothesis（de Vries 2000,2002,2006）.In addition,plenty of linguistic facts indicate that some appositives are not immediately adjacent to their anchors,which are regarded as extraposed appositive constructions.As for such structures,de Vries（2002）claimed they have undergone a specifying coordination plus ellipsis process.Subsequently,Mili（?）ev&Mili（?）evi（?）（2012）tried to find the potential landing site for the extraposed constituent who speculated that it is the anchor rather than the appositive that is leftwards moved to FocP in Serbian and to∑P in Old English.Finally,as the appositive position is most frequently occupied by nominal expressions,the issue concerning Case valuation of appositive constructions also attracted attention.Surprisingly,relevant works drew the similar conclusion that the appositives share the same Case with their anchors which is whatever Case assigned to the entire appositive construction.Nevertheless,appositive clauses have been viewed as ineligible Case receivers all along.Significant contributions though these findings have made to appositive research,they also revealed the research gaps.Specifically,issues related to the syntactic derivation and Case valuation of appositive constructions still crave for common ground.Moreover,some research proceeded at a relatively early age which are inevitably subject to certain theoretical limitations.Hence,under the guidance of the three methodological prerequisites put forward by Culicover（1997）as well as the Minimalist Program,the latest theoretical achievement of Chomsky（1993,1995,2000,2001,2005）,this research intends to uncover the mystery of the foregoing questions and has reaped the following rewards.In respect of regular appositive constructions,an appositive behaves on a par with a secondary predicate which builds a copular sentence with its anchor.What’s more,in conformity to the RP analysis introduced by den Dikken（2006）,there is evidence suggesting that a regular appositive structure is actually a RP in which the anchor serves as the subject and the appositive the predicate,mediated by a null Relator head.Linearly,it can be schematized as[_RP[_XP Anchor][R’R（（?））[_YP Appositive]]].With respect to extraposed appositive constructions,an appositive,instead of an anchor,indeed undergoes extraposition rather than base-generates at a separate position.Moreover,there are two eligible homes for extraposed appositives to return to,Spec-FocP and Spec-TopP.For those which represent new information or comply with the end-focus principle,they ultimately reside at Spec-FocP whereas others,anticipated appositives in particular,they settle in Spec-TopP in order to fulfill the function of topic shift or topic reintroduction.As regards Case valuation of appositive constructions,the speculation that an anchor and an appositive share the same Case turns out to be factually and theoretically untenable.Initially,a probe can only locates the anchor within its c-command domain.Later,the entire RP obtains the features from the anchor via Feature Percolation.Thus,the probe ultimately agrees with and assigns Case to the appositive construction.With regard to the appositive,it dodges the detection of the probe on account of the Case shelter cast up by its predicate identity.Additionally,when it comes to controversy engendered by the Case-assignment of finite clauses,it seems to be a more reasonable choice to take them as qualified Case recipients.Thus,appositive clauses,one kind of finite clauses,originally are qualified candidates for Case,but they are free from the formal licensing owing to the Case shelter in the way that regular DP appositives do.These findings,corroborated by a multitude of linguistic facts and theoretical bases,they are of practical and theoretical significance.Not only do they fill up the gaps in appositive research,but also they deepen the understanding towards appositive constructions.Furthermore,they likewise heighten the descriptive and explanatory adequacy of the Generative Grammar.