EXTRAPOSITION AND VP-SHELL

Abstract

This paper concerns some syntactic constraints imposed on Extraposition from NP. It has been pointed out in the literature that Extraposition is possible from D-structure object NPs. The present study examines applicabilities of Extraposition to object NPs in double complement constructions, and shows that while the second complement NPs tolerate Extraposition, the first ones reject Extraposition. I claim that this constraint imposed on the first complement NPs follows immediately from the Larsonian shell analysis of phrase structures. This in turn means that the present study motivates the shell analysis of phrase structures in terms of extraction phenomena.