Pied Piping and Crossover-Effects in German and Polish. Some Minimalist
Consequences


1. Introduction.
The starting point of the analysis are constructions in English e.g. :
"many students read the book" 
"the book( ) many students read (t)". 

Movements to the initial position of the sentence are not permitted under
the same conditions in German and in Polish:  
"viele Studenten lesen das Buch", 
"*das Buch( ) viele Studenten lesen (t)",
"studenci czytaja ksiazke",
"*ksiazke( )studenci czytaja(t).

2. Problem - analysis - argumentation.
These constructions are analyzed in embedded clauses, whereby cyclic
movements can be pointed to COMP and specCOMP: 
 (specCOMP) (COMP) studenci czytaja (x) (x) lezy na biurku,
(ksiazka) (ktora) studenci czytaja (t) (t) lezy na biurku.

We can observe that the WH-movement from the base-generated position is not
admissible over the local domain in Polish. The WH-phrase pied-pipes the
remainder . These movements become transparent, if we consider the
negation: 
*(wiersza) (ktory) studenci nie czytaja (t) Mickiewicz napisal (t)
*(wiersza) (ktorego) studenci nie czytaja (t) Mickiewicz napisal (t)
??(wiersza) studenci nie czytaj± (ktory) Mickiewicz napisal (t)
(wiersza) (ktory) Mickiewicz napisal (t) studenci nie czytaja (t).

Some attempts at explanation of the infinitive constructions in German were
already suggested (cf. Riemsdijk 1985): "Jetzt hat er sich endlich den
Wagen [den zu kaufen] er sich schon lange vorgenommen hatte, leisten
können". I will discuss both examples and solution attempts. 

3. Conclusions.
The discussion, which proceeds from the argument structure, TH allocation
and movements to COMP is continued in the minimalist framework. The
activity of the operations " Merge " "Agree " and " Move " is considered,
in order to remain (in situ) with " Procrastinate " or to force " Last
Resort ".  

References:
Abraham (1995), Deutsche Syntax im Sprachenvergleich. Grundlegung einer
typologischen Syntax des Deutschen. Tuebingen: Narr 
Abraham&Gelderen (1997), German: Syntactic Problems - Problematic
Syntax. Niemeyer 
Chomsky, Noam (1995), The Minimalist Program. MIT
Chomsky, Noam (1998), Minimalist Inquiries: the Framework. Unfinished
Manuscript.  
Lipczuk&Mecner&Westphal (1999), Lexikon der modernen Linguistik. Szczecin:
Albatros. 
Mecner, P (1999) Plädoyer für ein generatives Modell der Linguistik
Polnisch & Deutsch. Überlegungen zum Minimalismus. In: Katny/Schatte: Das
Deutsche von innen und von aussen. Ulrich Engel zum 70. Geburtstag. Poznan:
UAM 
Riemsdijk, Henk van (1985) Zum Rattenfängereffekt bei Infinitiven in
deutschen Relativsätzen, in: (Abraham 1985, 1991) Erklärende Syntax, Gunter
Narr