Left node blocking

Abstract

This article investigates a particular phenomenon of coordination that delivers important clues about the nature of syntactic structures. We call this phenomenonleft node blocking– the designation is a play on the related concept ofright node raising. Left node blocking provides insight into how syntactic structures are produced and processed. The dependency grammar analysis of the left node blocking phenomenon put forth here focuses onrootsin coordinated strings. By acknowledging roots, it is possible to discern what coordination is revealing about syntactic structures. In particular, coordination delivers evidence for relatively flat structures.