A Labeling Approach to Extraction out of Clausal Adjuncts

Abstract

This paper accounts for the ban on extraction out of adjunct clauses, by relying on labeling, especially via feature sharing. Clausal adjuncts bear distinctive properties, when compared with arguments that have been widely researched on. One of the main characteristics of clausal adjuncts is their island-hood. Especially concentrating on the adjunct condition, which dictates that a clausal adjunct forms a strong island for extraction, a feature sharing-based approach is proposed in this paper. Departing from Truswell’s (2011) semantic approach, we propose that in cases where a clausal adjunct does not form a single event with a matrix clause vP, the merger of an adjunct is left as unlabeled. In other words, the unlabeled status of the merger formed by a clausal adjunct is a culprit for imposing the adjunct condition which bans further movement out of the clausal adjunct. Regarding the exceptional exemption from the adjunct condition, extraction out of a phrasal adjunct is exceptionally allowed in certain structural environment where the phrasal adjunct (with its internal structure being vP) is merged with the corresponding matrix clause vP to form a single event via theta-identification, which successfully results in labeling of the merge.