This paper examines the raising constructions of Haitian Creole both from a descriptive and from a theoretical point of view. Descriptively, the constructions involve a local relation between the non-thematic subject position of a verbal predicate and the thematic subject position of an embedded tensed sentence, which is occupied by an overt pronominal copy in place of the expected trace and manifests the thematic dependency characteristic of well-understood forms of raising. The theoretical interest of these constructions concerns the theory of A-chains and predication. Despite the fact that Haitian Creole raising appears to manifest resumptive pronouns in A-chains, I argue that a revision of the standard A-chain theory is not warranted. Haitian Creole raising constructions manifest both NP movement and predication in the sense of Williams (1980, 1986). I provide evidence supporting the existence of clausal predicates, small clauses, and A-chains conceived in terms of NP movement.
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Deprez, V. Raising constructions in Haitian Creole. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 10, 191–231 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133812
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133812