A discourse-syntax interface-based approach to three types of focus – Information Focus, Corrective or Contrastive Focus, and Mirative Focus – is discussed in this paper. In my approach, I address the role of discourse/agreement features in the syntactic process of Agree in the Minimalist Program as well as their possible combination with an Edge Feature to trigger attraction of each discourse category, comparing Spanish and English. The data I examine are taken from experimental work, based on two original experiments that test the grammaticality/acceptability of sentences with fronted and in situ focus by native speakers of English and Spanish. The parametric variation detected in the two languages is accounted for by an analysis based on the availability of inheritance of discourse features in the relevant language alongside the activation of an Edge Feature, triggering movement of the relevant discourse category.

This short article proposes to eliminate asymmetries between the CP and vP phases by arguing for a more uniform clause structure in which both phase heads, C and v, are always present in a derivation but may be removed from the workspace by Transfer. I argue that C is present in the derivation of raising clauses but is removed from the workspace after DP movement yields intersecting sets, in the sense of Epstein et al. (2012, 2015).

This research investigates the morpho-syntactic behaviour of the Arabic complementizer ʔinn in a range of Arabic varieties (Modern Standard Arabic, Jordanian Arabic, and Lebanese Arabic). It essentially argues that this complementizer shares (not donates or keeps, pace Ouali 2008, 2011) its unvalued $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-features with its complement $\text{T}^{0}$, something that makes ʔinn and $\text{T}^{0}$ separate agreeing heads. An inflectional suffix attached to ʔinn is treated as a PF reflex (i.e. an overt morphological realization) of valuation of ʔinn’s unvalued $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-features or lack thereof. This research also argues that the occurrence of such an inflectional suffix is ruled by the postulated Agree Chain Record, an interface condition that demands an Agree relation to have a PF reflex, called a Record (i.e. an overt Case marking on the goal or, if not, a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-affix on the probe). This way, we account for the complementary distribution of overt Case and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-Agree in Arabic. We also show how a host of other phenomena, including word order agreement asymmetries in Modern Standard Arabic and lack of such asymmetries in Arabic vernaculars, fares well with this view.

This article discusses the morphological and syntactic structure of relative clauses in Ojibwe (Algonquian), in particular their status as wh-constructions. Relatives in this language are full clauses that bear special morphology, show evidence of A′-movement of a wh-operator, and consequently exhibit wh-agreement also found in interrogatives and certain types of focus constructions. Ojibwe shows the possibility of wh-agreement realized on T (in addition to C and v for other languages), as it appears on tense prefixes. We account for the realization of wh-agreement on T in Ojibwe via the mechanism of feature inheritance. We propose that while declarative matrix clauses are canonical in that C introduces φ-features in Ojibwe, the role of C in embedded or wh-contexts is to introduce δ-features (discourse features), such as [uwh], rather than φ-features. These δ-features can be introduced by C, but are transferred down to T where they spell out as wh-agreement.