Linguistics Seminar Talk - Susi Wurmbrand

Linguistics Seminar Talk by Prof Susi Wurmbrand.
What ECM may tell us about the cartography of the left periphery
A common approach to ECM is that the embedded clause lacks the CP domain, thereby allowing A-dependencies to cross the lower clause boundary. In this talk I cast doubt on this view based on the cross-linguistic distribution of ECM, a comparison of ECM and restructuring, and the micro-parametric distribution of ECM in Germanic. The hypothesis I will put forward is that ECM is not only compatible with an embedded CP but in fact requires at least certain parts of the CP to produce ECM. Along the way, we will also zoom in on different cartographic approaches to the left periphery, and I will suggest that we can gain a better understanding of ECM by incorporating Rizzi-style information structure projections with Krifka-style speech act projections in the CP.