The syntax of tenselessness

Más información sobre el libro

This work offers a detailed analysis of verb-verb agreement phenomena in Swedish, focusing on constructions like pseudocoordinations and double participles. It presents evidence related to extraction, locality, selection, and interpretation, arguing that these constructions involve "infinitives in disguise" that align with the matrix clause in tense, mood, and aspect. The author posits that the dependencies underpinning this agreement arise from Agree relationships between functional heads of the same label, resulting in restructuring or clause-union. The book makes two significant theoretical contributions: (i) the relationship between agreement and functional structure, suggesting that the ability to "copy" a morphosyntactic form depends on the presence of the relevant functional projection in the agreeing XP; and (ii) the constancy of size between restructuring and non-restructuring infinitivals, indicating that the verb's selected category can remain unchanged across these configurations. It explores how restructuring may involve alternation between unmarked features and unvalued varieties, addressing properties like tenselessness and finiteness in infinitivals. This work is a vital resource for understanding the syntax of infinitival clauses, clause-union/restructuring, and agreement phenomena in natural language, and serves as a reference for those interested in Swedish and other Scandinavian languages.