Verb Movement in Sanandaji Kurdish: A Minimalist approach

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