Abstract

This thesis explores a syntactic theory of scope and some of its consequences. Central to the proposed theory are the claims that the syntactic concept of scope is characterized in terms of chain and that quantification structure is defined both at S-structure and at LF. It is shown that this theory of chain scope offers a unified account of various domains of quantification, including scope interactions, bound variable anaphora, superiority effects, parasitic gap constructions and scope reconstruction effects. It is also shown that in this theory, the Chinese-Japanese parameter in scope interactions can be explained by the syntactic parameter that the subject of a clause in this class of languages occurs in A-bar position at S-structure. The two salient properties of the parameter, lack of scope interactions and the effect of syntactic movement on scope interpretations, therefore follow as aspects of S-structure quantification. Chinese-Japanese type languages also exhibit another important parameter: absence of Wh-Movement. It is argued that Wh-constructions in different natural languages do not necessarily have uniform LF structures. Two major properties of wh-constructions, selection and scope, are carefully examined, and it is shown that considerations of these properties naturally lead to the conclusion that the absence of Wh-Movement directly follows from the syntactic properties of wh-phrases in Chinese-Japanese type languages, namely, that wh-phrases in this class of languages are syntactically quantifier phrases. Consequently, it is argued that wh-constructions in this class of languages have LF structures similar to those formed by quantifier phrases, and not to those formed by wh-phrases, in languages with Wh-Movement