On the Syntax of the Right Node Raising Construction: Three Major Analyses and their Mileage

Abstract

Natural languages allow a special kind of coordinate structure, the so-called right node raising construction (RNR hereafter), in which one instance of occurrence in the last conjunct is interpreted distributively over conjuncts. There have been several approaches entertained in the literature to derive the distributivity in the RNR. Three major approaches among them are across-the-board rightward movement analyses; PF ellipsis analyses ; multiple dominance analyses. In this presentation, we cross-examine the three major approaches against various properties that the RNR displays and try to find out which of the three offers the best mileage. We also inquire into the question of whether the RNR is to be homogeneously analyzed or not.