Scholarlink

<p>Quotative inversion (QI) clauses in Setswana and English—two SVO languages—show a marked OVS word order in which a quote appears preverbally and the agentive external argument appears postverbally. In this paper, I present empirical evidence from both languages showing that the preverbal quotative subject moves to its landing site via A-movement, while the agentive subject remains in-situ. While moving an internal argument to an A-position above an external argument may seem to pose a minimality problem, I show that QI constructions are best conceived of as smuggling derivations in which the internal argument is moved over the external argument via the movement of a larger constituent containing the internal argument (Collins <CitationRef CitationID="CR40">2005</CitationRef>, <CitationRef CitationID="CR43">2024</CitationRef>; Storment <CitationRef CitationID="CR124">2025</CitationRef>). I support this proposal empirically and theoretically, drawing on novel data from both English and Setswana analyzed under the Strong Minimalist Thesis (Chomsky et&#xa0;al. <CitationRef CitationID="CR34">2023</CitationRef>). I additionally draw parallels to other inversion phenomena in both languages, showing that these constructions are best conceived of as inverse voice phenomena.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Quotative inversion as smuggling: Evidence from Setswana and English

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月25日

查看全文
  • John David Storment

摘要

Quotative inversion (QI) clauses in Setswana and English—two SVO languages—show a marked OVS word order in which a quote appears preverbally and the agentive external argument appears postverbally. In this paper, I present empirical evidence from both languages showing that the preverbal quotative subject moves to its landing site via A-movement, while the agentive subject remains in-situ. While moving an internal argument to an A-position above an external argument may seem to pose a minimality problem, I show that QI constructions are best conceived of as smuggling derivations in which the internal argument is moved over the external argument via the movement of a larger constituent containing the internal argument (Collins 2005, 2024; Storment 2025). I support this proposal empirically and theoretically, drawing on novel data from both English and Setswana analyzed under the Strong Minimalist Thesis (Chomsky et al. 2023). I additionally draw parallels to other inversion phenomena in both languages, showing that these constructions are best conceived of as inverse voice phenomena.