Minimality, Reconstruction, and PF Movement

Abstract

We investigate the interaction of clitic left-dislocation (CLLD), wh-interrogatives, and topicalization in Lebanese Arabic. A wh-phrase or a topicalized phrase can be fronted across a CLLDed element derived by movement but not across a base-generated one. A CLLDed element cannot be fronted across another CLLDed element, a wh-phrase, or a topicalized phrase. These interception effects are accounted for only if Minimality is construed as a constraint on derivations rather than representations and if fronting of the CLLDed elements is seen to apply in the PF component. It is thus suggested that the mapping between overt Syntax and the Articulatory-Perceptual level is not trivial.