On the position of central adverbial clauses

Abstract

One major concern of syntactic theory has been the identification of the structural position of adjuncts in the clausal architecture with the ultimate goal of explaining their properties in a number of respects. In this paper I concentrate on the analysis of central adverbial clauses, providing evidence that when in initial position they always appear in specifier positions, either in [Spec,TopP], as proposed in Borgonovo and Valmala (2009), or in [Spec,FocP]. Concerning their sentence-final position, I explore the traditional right-adjunction approach to the position of adverbials, the adjunct-in-complement analysis argued for in Larson (1988), Stroik (1990), Kayne (1994), and the adjunct-in-specifier approach defended in Baltin (2004) and Cinque (1999, 2006), showing that Cinque's (2006) analysis is more adequate on both empirical and conceptual grounds.