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This paper investigates the correlative construction in Isbukun Bunun, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. I show that in this language the correlative clause and its associated anaphoric element do not form a constituent at any point in the derivation. Drawing on evidence from island-insensitivity, the absence of Condition C effects and non-constituency facts, I propose that the syntactic relation between the correlative clause and the nominal correlate is derived by a base-generated adjunction structure. Moreover, I argue that the correlative clause, which behaves as a generalized quantifier, binds the nominal correlate phrase in the matrix clause, which is construed as a bound variable. The proposed quantificational binding view is further shown to capture the types of correlate phrases allowed in Isbukun Bunun correlatives. Resume: Cet article etudie la construction correlative de l’Isbukun Bunun, une langue austronesienne parlee a Taiwan. Je demontre que la proposition correlative et l’element anaphorique avec lequel elle est associee ne forment pas un constituant dans cette langue. En raison de l’absence de la sensibilite aux ilots, de l’absence des effets de la Condition C et de l’absence de la constitution syntaxique, je propose que la relation entre la correlative et le correlat nominal est derivee par l’adjonction dans une position de base. En outre, je propose que la correlative, dont le comportement est similaire a celui d’un quantificateur generalise, lie le correlat nominal dans la proposition principale lequel est interprete comme une variable liee. Cette analyse explique les types de correlats qui sont autorises dans la langue.

This paper investigates the syntactic status of nominal modifiers in Isbukun Bunun, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. In Isbukun Bunun, nominal modifiers such as possessors, adjectives, demonstratives, and relative clauses precede the head noun they modify, and they may or must be linked to the head noun by an associative marker tu. Based on the observed NP-ellipsis facts and the formal licensing condition, I argue that the associative marker tu is a complementizer, and the structure it introduces should be accommodated under the adjunction analysis, whereas various existing alternative complementation approaches that view tu as a head selecting the modified phrase as its complement fail to capture the noted properties regarding ellipsis. 1. INTRODUCTION. (1) In many languages, complex noun phrases contain an apparently meaningless, and sometimes optional, element whose function is to provide a link between modifiers and modifiees. The existence of such a linking element or associative marker is attested in several Formosan Austronesian languages (He et al. 1986; Huang 1997,2000; Chang 2000; Wu 2000; Zeitoun 2000; Tang 2007), and in a considerable number of other languages (cf den Dikken and Singhapreecha 2004), as exemplified in (1): (1) a. PAIWAN va'uan a kun new A skirt 'a new skirt' b. AMIS ma-su'su'-ay a tamdaw AV-fat-FAC A person 'a fat person' c. THAI khon thii ken person THII smart 'a smart person' d. MANDARIN CHINESE huangse de chenshan yellow DE shirt 'a yellow shirt' In the principles-and-parameters framework, grammatical constructions arise from the universal principles that work in tandem with parameters with values set for particular languages; therefore, it is very often shown that some intuitively equivalent constructions in two languages involve very different syntactic representations, since there are no a priori universal rules specific to a given construction. This paper examines complex noun phrases in Isbukun Bunun (often referred to as just Isbukun in this paper), and explores the nature of the associative element tu as well as the modification structure in this language. I will examine the existing approaches to such linking elements and investigate whether phrases like (2) should be analyzed as a relative construction or a pure complex nominal construction--or even some other construction. In particular, a careful examination of Isbukun nominal structure shows that Kayne's (1994) antisymmetry theory, which hypothesizes that phrase structure is universally head-initial, does not account for the syntactic patterns of complex noun phrases in Isbukun. (2) ISBUKUN BUNUN madiav *(tu) ulus AV.yellow TU clothes 'yellow clothes' This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 first provides some basics of the morphosyntax of Isbukun, and subsequently introduces the Isbukun tu-construction that is the focus of this study. Section 3 discusses possible accounts for the associative marker as pointed out in the literature, and further argues that tu is a complementizer that introduces an adjoined pure sentential modifier phrase to the modifiee, mainly based on the evidence from ellipsis. Section 4 concludes the paper. 2. THE EMPIRICAL BASE. Bunun is a Formosan Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. The current study is based on the Isbukun dialect spoken in Taitung County. (2) Isbukun Bunun is a predicate-initial, or more specifically VSO, language (He et al. 1986; Li 1997; Huang 1997; Jeng 1999; Zeitoun 2000; Wu 2013). Just like many other Formosan and Western Austronesian languages, Isbukun Bunun permits a range of arguments to serve as the syntactically most prominent NP of the clause, marked by the a nominative case marker. Such an a-marked phrase has been known by a number of names in the Austronesian literature, including "subject," "topic," and "pivot"; here 1 will refer to it as the subject for ease of presentation, though this term should be regarded with caution. …

This paper studies the restructuring phenomenon in Isbukun Bunun, which exhibits special morphology and syntax that distinguish it from sentences containing common infinitives. I demonstrate that a subclass of predicates should be analyzed as restructuring predicates in Isbukun Bunun, since they apparently create transparent domains for syntactic operations such as passivization and clitic placement. I argue that the lack of clause-boundedness effects in restructuring follows trivially from the functionally impoverished structure of the restructuring infinitives, so that this construction lacks clausal properties throughout the derivation.

This paper has two main goals. First, I demonstrate how the peculiar morphosyntactic properties of the theme NPs in Isbukun Bunun existential sentences can be derived under an expletive account. The properties under investigation include structural Case marking, the emergence of definiteness restrictions, and the resistance of theme NPs to A-extraction. Second, I argue for a small clause analysis of existential sentences in Isbukun Bunun. In particular, based on word orders, island effects, the comparison with possessive constructions, and the coordination facts, I argue that the existential predicate in Isbukun Bunun selects a small clause as its sole internal argument. I also discuss how the proposal developed for Isbukun Bunun might generalize to, and shed light on, the impersonal constructions in natural languages.