Mapping the left periphery is the fifth volume of the book series ‘The Cartography of Syntactic Structures’. It deals with discussions and refinements of the functional structure of the complementizer system, the so-called left periphery. The individual contributions seek to identify new functional projections, investigate the syntactic mechanisms that operate within the left periphery, and extend and test the cartographic claims against new cross-linguistic data. The book's nine chapters are divided into two parts. Part I (‘The Projections in CP’) deals with functional projections and properties pertaining to the domain of the Complementizer Phrase (CP) proper, while Part II (‘At the Borders of CP’) discusses phenomena that involve an interaction between the CP-layer and the syntactic structure at its borders, that is, the Inflectional Phrase (IP).
In the ‘Introduction’, the two editors, Paola Benincà & Nicola Munaro, give a brief exposition of the themes of the book and defend the cartographic approach against the accusation that it is ‘redundant’ and ‘descriptive’. They argue that languages are characterized by a rich and articulated underlying functional structure. Redundancy is only apparent, consisting in the fact that some languages manifest and realize a number of projections overtly while other languages leave them phonetically empty and hence invisible. What at first sight may look like simple description turns out to be a valuable contribution to the study and mapping of the functional structure of the sentence.
Given the wide range of syntactic phenomena found in the CP-system, it would be difficult to comment on Benincà & Munaro's volume as a whole in this review. Instead, I will briefly summarize and comment on each of the nine chapters individually.
In Chapter 1, M. Lluïsa Hernanz offers a study of ‘Assertive bien in Spanish and the left periphery’, examining the connection between bien and polarity and presupposition phenomena. Through a detailed contrastive description and analysis, in which bien is compared to other (homophonous) elements, Hernanz shows that assertive bien has an affirmative meaning and an emphatic interpretation, behaving like a positive polarity marker. However, unlike the positive polarity marker sì, bien encodes a presuppositional meaning closely related to a concessive reading. Syntactically, bien is shown to share salient properties with those of wh-sentences, leading the author to claim that bien targets the Focus phrase (FocP) in order to check its emphatic value. The syntactic position and interpretation of bien are then accounted for by the claim that bien moves from PolarityP to FocP in order to check a [+emp(hatic)] feature. In line with a trend that is gaining ground in the cartographic approach, the change in meaning and function of the same element is explained by postulating movement to a higher position: each projection is associated with a different interpretation.
In Chapter 2, ‘On the syntax of topic and focus in Chinese’, Linda Badan & Francesca Del Gobbo attempt to apply the generalizations developed for the left periphery in Italian (and Romance in general) to an unrelated, typologically distant language, namely Mandarin Chinese. The authors concentrate on the syntactic behaviour and properties of the different projections. The semantic interpretations associated with different projections (which may prove decisive for the identification of certain categories) are unfortunately discussed only briefly. On the basis of data concerning ordering restrictions and other syntactic effects, the authors argue for the following sequence of functional projections in the Mandarin Chinese left periphery:
(1) Aboutness Topic>Hanging Topic>Left-Dislocated Topic> lian-Focus>IP
Only focus phrases with lian ‘even’ move into the left periphery. Other types of focus stay in situ and, like wh-phrases, are operator-variable structures. Badan & Del Gobbo conclude that the sentence-initial lian-construction, while semantically a focus phrase, is syntactically a Topic.
Hanging topics and left-dislocated topics occur in both root and embedded sentences, with hanging topics always preceding left-dislocated topics and showing similar restrictions to those found in Italian (for example, left-dislocated topics can only be linked to a gap). However, there are some differences between Mandarin Chinese and Italian that prove problematic for adopting a fine structure of the left periphery like the one developed by Rizzi (Reference Rizzi and Haegeman1997) and further refined in Benincà (Reference Benincà, Cinque and Salvi2001) and Benincà & Poletto (Reference Benincà, Poletto and Rizzi2004). Some of these differences could be accounted for by adopting a base-generation analysis of some topics, especially topics that are linked neither to a gap nor to a resumptive clitic. Despite the fact that some puzzling differences remain unresolved, Badan & Del Gobbo's contribution provides illuminating comparative work that is essential for the cartographic approach to prosper, allowing its tenets to be tested cross-linguistically.
In Chapter 3, ‘What's a wh-word got to do with it?’, Enoch Aboh & Roland Pfau tackle the problem of the syntactic derivation of yes/no-questions. They assume that the left-periphery projection Inter(rogative)P is involved in the formation of yes/no-questions. In languages where a sentence requires a sentence-final toneme or a question particle to be interpreted as an interrogative, the derivation involves remnant movement of the sentence to the specifier of InterP: the particle is merged in the interrogative functional head Inter°, which attracts the proposition (FinP) into its specifier. Aboh & Pfau go on to consider whether wh-questions, which lack an overt sentence-final question marker, involve a different derivation, but conclude that these too involve movement to InterP; that is, the authors argue that wh-phrases do not clause-type a sentence as an interrogative. Wh-phrases contribute to the propositional content of the clause, and undergo wh-movement if they possess a quantificational feature that is attracted by the focus projection. Aboh & Pfau's claim is based on ample cross-linguistic evidence from both spoken and sign languages and follows Cheng (Reference Cheng1991) in assuming that clause-typing is mandatory and related to functional heads within the complementizer system. It differs from Cheng's clause-typing hypothesis in arguing that wh-phrases and wh-movement do not participate in clause-typing. While neglecting certain aspects of wh-questions, such as verb movement and/or auxiliary inversion as well as the role of the feature Q (Rizzi Reference Rizzi1990, Reference Rizzi and Haegeman1997), this chapter has the merit of contributing to the little-studied syntax of yes/no-questions. It proposes a unifying analysis of interrogative force, according to which interrogative force always requires the activation of Inter° (in both yes/no-questions and wh-questions).
In Chapter 4, ‘Toward a hierarchy of clause types’, Nicola Munaro undertakes a contrastive analysis of Northern Italian dialects, considering the contexts and interpretations associated with enclisis of the pronominal subject to the verb. The various contexts appear to be characterized as implying a (more) subjective representation of the propositional content. Munaro argues that enclisis or subject inversion is the consequence of verb raising to a functional head within the CP-system in order to satisfy a clause-typing requirement. He focuses on the distribution and ordering restrictions in conditional and concessive clauses, and identifies a range of different targets and landing sites for the verb within the CP-system, which trigger different interpretations. Munaro concludes that the projections that are devoted to clausal typing have the following hierarchical order (which reflects an increasing degree of assertive force from right to left):
(1) Concessive>Counterfactual>>>Evaluative >Identificational
Inside a conditional or concessive clause, clause-typing can be achieved by raising the verb to an appropriate head of the CP-field; the clausal adjunct is then raised to the relevant specifier of the matrix CP-field so as to enter a local relation with Force. Despite the complex nature of some of the proposed mechanisms, this chapter makes a significant contribution to the study of clause-typing and adjunct clauses.
Like Chapter 2, Chapter 5, ‘The structure of the Topic field in Hungarian’, by Anikó Lipták, addresses the issue of whether it is possible to extend the proposed fine structure of the left periphery to other languages, and the question of the universality of functional categories. More specifically, Lipták analyses and discusses the types of topic and the structure of the Topic field in Hungarian. Although syntactically similar (in so far as both involve syntactic movement), contrastive and non-contrastive topics need to be distinguished from one another on grounds of semantics, prosody, and lexical marking. Syntactically, Hungarian has only one kind of topicalization process: all topics are recursive, can be embedded, and are derived via movement to the left periphery from a clause-internal position. From a semantic viewpoint, contrastive topics may be subdivided into left-dislocated topics, which express implied contrast, and contrastive topics proper, which convey explicit contrast. A comparison with Italian leads Lipták to the conclusion that the universalist view, according to which all languages share the same underlying array of functional projections, cannot be maintained and that functional structure can differ cross-linguistically. Lipták further notes that simply amalgamating the set of projections found in Italian and the set of projections found in Hungarian would prove unfalsifiable, and would therefore lack explanatory adequacy. These conclusions seem to weaken some of the tenets of cartography, and appear to go against the idea that redundancy is only apparent, as defended in the introduction to the volume. Nevertheless, Lipták fully adopts the cornerstone of cartographic theory, in particular the need for postulating specialized functional projections, and claims that Hungarian topics must target dedicated functional projections within the CP-system. The cartographic analysis is defended against other possible analyses, such as adjunction-based proposals.
Chapter 6, ‘Sentential particles and remnant movement’, by Cecilia Poletto & Raffaella Zanuttini, is the opening chapter of Part II and deals with the syntax of sentential particles in Northern Italian dialects. Building on previous work on this topic, the authors treat sentential particles as heads of dedicated functional projections, and explain their positioning as the result of remnant movement. In particular, Poletto & Zanuttini consider the distribution and interpretation of the particle mo, which is found in imperative and interrogative clauses in several Northern Italian dialects. It is claimed that mo merges in a position within the high IP-domain and then moves to a head position within the low CP-domain. The cross-linguistic differences in its distribution derive from the fact that different dialects allow different parts of the structure that is c-commanded by the particle to raise to the specifier of the projection headed by mo. The specific interpretation of mo is obtained via binding by an operator (such as speaker, addressee or time of utterance) that connects the sentence to the discourse. This chapter not only contributes to the research on the complex domain of sentence particles but also offers an explanation of the differences in the distribution and interpretation of the same element in different varieties, without resorting to the hypothesis that there are different lexical items with idiosyncratic properties.
In Chapter 7, ‘Matching moods: Mood concord between CP and IP in Salentino and Southern Calabrian subjunctive complements’, Federico Damonte defends the hypothesis that subjunctive complements in Salentino and Southern Calabrian involve a process of mood concord between two functional heads, namely Fin° in the low CP-domain and Mood° in the IP-domain. A mood feature in Mood° values the matching feature in Fin° through the operation Agree. Several accounts in the literature have analysed the mood markers in these dialects differently, treating them either as subjunctive complementizers in CP (particularly for Salentino cu) or as modal particles within IP (especially for Calabrian mu). Damonte offers a unifying analysis of these groups of dialects, maintaining that subjunctive complements require the activation of two functional heads, one in CP and the other in IP. The analysis is empirically motivated by the fact that in Salentino, the IP projection may be phonologically realized either through the subjunctive mood on the verb or through embedded modal auxiliaries, while in Southern Calabrian dialects, a prepositional complementizer in CP may occur together with the modal particle in IP. This chapter thus suggests a ‘division of labour’ between the IP- and CP-domains, which may be viewed as a kind of ‘duplication’.
In Chapter 8, ‘Subject licensing in CP: The Neapolitan double-subject construction’, Adam Ledgeway addresses the encoding of subjecthood-related properties within the C-system. Based on data from the dialects spoken in Naples and its surrounding areas, Ledgeway shows that in the double-subject construction, the higher subject lexicalizes a functional projection which encodes a subject-of-predication feature, while the lower subject satisfies the ‘grammatical’ properties of subject. Providing a detailed investigation of the distributional and interpretative properties of this construction, he concludes that the functional projection that hosts the higher subject (SubjP) serves to introduce a ‘new’ topical subject of predication, and occupies a position within the Topic field of the left periphery. The subject-of-predication feature, usually licensed within the IP-domain (see Cardinaletti Reference Cardinaletti and Rizzi2004), thus occurs in the CP-field in the double-subject construction, satisfying the specific pragmatic-syntactic conditions that license the construction itself. Ledgeway's analysis provides further justification and empirical support for a projection SubjP, which was first proposed in cartographic studies of the tense domain by Cardinaletti (Reference Cardinaletti and Rizzi2004).
In the last chapter of this volume, ‘Evidential mood, restructuring, and the distribution of functional sembrare’, Liliane Haegeman draws a distinction between lexical and functional sembrare ‘to seem’ in Italian on the basis of restrictions on clitic climbing. Following Cinque (Reference Cinque and Belletti2004), Haegeman analyses the restructuring verb sembrare as the head of the functional projection Moodevidential. Clitic climbing is excluded when sembrare occurs with modal or aspectual auxiliaries, in conditional clauses or the complements of factive verbs, which Haegeman accounts for by analysing these contexts to involve lexical sembrare. If speaker-related modal markers must be licensed by Force, evidential functional sembrare is barred from occurring in the non-clitic climbing contexts because these types of clause lack Force in their ‘impoverished’ left periphery. The absence of Force is in turn explained as a consequence of an intervention effect on movement: an assertive operator in the specifier of ForceP would block the movement of the IP-internal operator in central adverbial clauses and in the complements of factive verbs. The absence of Force directly accounts for the unavailability of Moodevidential and other speaker-oriented modal markers that need licensing through Force. Interestingly, modal expressions are also incompatible with imperative and interrogative sentences, which clearly lack assertive Force.
Each chapter of the book limits itself to providing empirical support only for the analysis proposed, and there is little overlap between the chapters. Nevertheless, the volume achieves coherence not only in that all contributions consider the CP-field, but also in that they all share the research aims and tools of cartographic analysis (see Cinque & Rizzi Reference Cinque, Rizzi, Heine and Narro2010). The book is a great source of useful data and interesting proposals, analysing a wide range of phenomena and making important contributions to the research in comparative syntax. It will prove helpful for all those who are interested in the fine-grained structure of the left periphery and, more generally, in cartographic syntax.
