چكيده لاتين :
The present paper is about the syntactic verb movement in Sanandaji within
the minimalist program. To achieve this goal, verb movement can be
considered from two approaches: a) strong or weak agreement system based
on Pollock (1989), Belletti (1991), and Chomsky (1995), B) the split
inflectional system based on Bobaljik & Thráinsson(1998). The movement
of the main verb based on the strong and weak agreement system in the
Kurdish language has been investigated using the ellipsis of the verb phrase
as diagnostic. In recent studies, however, the ellipsis of the verb phrase has
been challenged in Persian languages. Having studied briefly linguistics’
view, we argue in favor of verb ellipsis in Sanandaji Kurdish and use it to
show verb movement in this language. But verb movement in the Kurdish
language has not been studied based on the second approach, which is the
split inflectional system. Based on this approach in languages that have a
split inflectional system, there is an obligatory verb movement. Thus, not
only do we review the previous view on the main verb movement, but we
study from a new point of view. In this study, based on empirical evidence
and theoretical considerations, we will show that there is verb movement in
Sanandaji Kurdish and the structural position of the main verb in this
language is the head of the tense phrase.
Introduction
The present paper is about the syntactic verb movement in Sanandaji
within the minimalist program. In Iranian languages, the verb appears at the
end of the sentence; hence it is not easy to show verb movement. Before turn
to the main topic, this question comes to mind why we should believe in
verb movement? The answer seems to be, nothing, except that Chomsky
(19995) argues that uninterpretable categorical features on a head are checked under the syntactic relation of sisterhood. Unlike English, In the
Kurdish language, the valued tense feature of little v is strong, so it must be
local to the feature it checks by. To achieve this goal, verb movement can be
considered from two approaches: a) strong or weak agreement system based
on Pollock (1989), Belletti (1991), and Chomsky (1995), B) the split
inflectional system based on Bobaljik & Thráinsson(1998). We will show
that there is verb movement in Sanandaji Kurdish and the structural position
of the main verb in this language is the head of the tense phrase.
Literature Review
There have been many studies on Kurdish. The majority of these studies
are traditional descriptive studies on the language. The review of these
studies on Kurdish shows that there is indeed a serious lack of theoretical
analysis on verb movement. The only works devoted to the analysis of verb
movement in Kurdish is Osmani (2015). He provides some empirical
evidence, including the position of VP-ellipsis and confirmatory tag
questions favoring verb movement out of vP in Kurdish. Darzi and Anooshe
(2010) is an important work on this topic in Persian. To the extent that
Iranian languages have had some close ancestors, we mention this work
here. Darzi and Anooshe (2010) provide several empirical evidence,
including the position of lower adverbials, VP-ellipsis, confirmatory tag
questions, and the interaction between tense and perfect aspect, favoring
verb movement out of vP in Persian.
Methodology
Approaching the question of verb movement in Kurdish from previous
works will be the issue that I will take up and explore first. The rest of the
research will be devoted to applying a novel approach in favor of the
proposed analysis of verb movement in Kurdish. The data reported in this
paper are drawn from Sanandaji Kurdish which is a variety of the Sorani
Kurdish, spoken mainly in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province of Iran. These data
are also mentioned by the author whose native language is Kurdish as well.
Result
The movement of the main verb based on the strong and weak agreement
system in the Kurdish language has been investigated using the ellipsis of
the verb phrase as diagnostic. These analyses in the Persian language
including (1) the v-stranding verb phrase ellipsis, (2) the null argument, (3) the DP/NP Ellipsis. Considering the affinity between Persian and Kurdish
languages, many of the generalization in the ellipsis of the verb phrase
construction in the Persian language can be applied in Sanandaji Kurdish
language. Therefore, in this article, we consider verb phrase ellipsis in
Persian language and then, use the result in the analyses of Sanandaji
Kurdish language data. Finally, it appears that based on empirical evidence
and theoretical considerations, the findings of the research indicate that the
ellipsis of the verb phrase construction exists in Sanandaji Kurdish language.
However, verb movement in the Kurdish language has not been studied
based on Bobaljik & Thráinsson(1998), which is the split inflectional
system. Based on this approach languages with obligatory verb movement
must have a split IP structure. Conversely, languages in which the verb
remains in the VP must have a simple IP. Thus, the architecture of the IP
complex correlates with the position of the finite verb.
Bobaljik & Thráinsson(1998) support their claims by two types of
empirical evidence. First, they predict that data showing that the split-IP
languages have more specifier positions in the IP complex than languages with
a simple IP. This is expected since the additional functional projections in the
split IP languages provide additional specifiers. This prediction born out in
Kurdish –Kurdish data is representative of object shift which is taken to mark
the left edge of VP. This data has constituted one of the major empirical
motivations for the existence of split IP. Second, they predict that the
languages with only a simple IP are restricted to having maximally one
inflectional morpheme attached to the inflected verb. Conversely, languages
with a split IP will allow distinct markers of tense and agreement to co-occur
on finite verbs. This prediction is correct in Kurdish. We provide some
Kurdish data that allows the expression of both tense and agreement by
discrete morphemes. Thus, not only do we review the previous view on the
main verb movement, but we study from a new point of view. In this study,
based on empirical evidence and theoretical considerations, we showed that
there is verb movement in Sanandaji Kurdish language and the structural
position of the main verb in Sannadaji Kurdish is the head of the tense phrase
