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pair-merge

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6 - Adjunct Incorporation and Avoiding Pair-Merge
Elly Van Gelderen, Arizona State University
Book:

Third Factors in Language Variation and Change

Published online:

16 December 2021

Print publication:

16 December 2021, pp 159-197
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Summary

Chapter 6 discusses another issue in efficient computations that language change casts some light on, namely through changes affecting adjuncts. Chomsky (2000, 2001) distinguishes between arguments (subjects and objects) and adverbials in terms of ordered pair-merge and unordered set-merge, respectively. I examine changes of VP and NP adjuncts to specifiers positions of functional categories (ASPP and DP, respectively) and of adjuncts to arguments. These changes show that pair-merge can be avoided. Adjuncts that are in specifier positions of functional categories in their turn reanalyze as heads, driven by labeling pressures. I also address the question of whether subordinate and insubordinate adjunct clauses change in unidirectional ways, and conclude that they don’t.