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Sentence-Medial NP-Adjuncts in English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Liliane Haegeman
Liliane Haegeman
Affiliation:
U.F.R. Angellier, Université Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3, B.P. 149, FR-59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq – Cedex, France. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, I want to show that, contrary to what is sometimes claimed in the literature, NP-adjuncts of the kind tomorrow, last week, etc., are attested sentence-medially in English. This pattern would seem to be particularly frequent in journalistic prose. Second, I examine and refute an analysis which takes such sentence-medial NP-adjuncts to be analysed as IP-external adjuncts across which the subject has been topicalised or focalised. Though such an analysis would be in keeping with the often proposed view that NP-adjuncts do not occupy an IP-internal position, I show that it raises a host of empirical problems and that it is not tenable. The conclusion is that NP-adjuncts cannot be analysed as being IP-external and that they occupy a high IP-internal position.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , June 2002 , pp. 79 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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