The mechanics of reciprocal shift

In this talk, I will present ongoing work that I am conducting on the structure of complex reciprocals (e.g., English’s each other) cross-linguistically. I will show that in many languages the complex reciprocal can be split apart by adpositions in PPs and also by possessums in possessive structures. This word order is also strongly correlated with case agreement between part of the reciprocal and its antecedent. I present an analysis in terms of movement of part of the reciprocal and couple that with a syntactic case transmission mechanism. This analysis will have consequences for the domain of agreement operations, linearization, and the binding of reflexive anaphors and reciprocals inside PPs and DPs.

Troy Messick is an assistant professor in the department of linguistics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Connecticut. His specialization is in generative syntactic theory. He has worked on a wide variety of topics in the field of syntax and its interfaces including ellipsis, complementation, semantic agreement, the morphosyntactic representation of gender features, and the structure of complex reflexives and reciprocals. He has published his work in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, Journal of Linguistics, Syntax and Glossa.