Filler-gap mismatches

[Borsley R D]

In case anyone is curious, I asked about filler-gap mismatches because of
some Welsh data. Welsh has aspectual constuctions containing an aspectual
particle and a non-finite verb as follows:

1) Mae Gwyn wedi darllen llyfr.
   is  Gwyn PERF read    book
   'Gwyn has read a book.'

2) Mae Gwyn yn   darllen llyfr.
   is  Gwyn PROG read    book
   'Gwyn is reading a book.'

In the case of (1) if you want to prepose the complement you get (3), but
in the case of (2) preposing gives not (4) but (5). The particle
disappears.

3) Wedi darllen llyfr Mae Gwyn.
   PERF read    book  is  Gwyn
   'Read a book has Gwyn.'

4) * Yn   darllen llyfr Mae Gwyn.
     PROG read    book  is  Gwyn
     'Reading a book is Gwyn.'

5) Darllen llyfr Mae Gwyn.
   read    book  is  Gwyn
   'Reading a book is Gwyn.'

You don't get the particle-less sequence in-situ.

6) * Mae Gwyn darllen llyfr.
     is  Gwyn read    book

I worry about this because I have an analysis of the basic facts in this
area which are rather like but I have no idea what to do with this fact.

best

Bob


Prof. Robert D. Borsley
Department of Language and Linguistics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ, UK

rborsley at essex.ac.uk
tel: +44 1206 873762
fax: +44 1206 872198
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~rborsley