Absorption

From Glottopedia

Absorption is a term that is used when some element assumes a (syntactic) feature that is not usually assigned to such an element, it is said that this element absorbs that feature.

[edit] Example

Case is usually assigned to an NP, but Case can be absorbed instead by passive morphology or by a clitic pronoun (not an NP).

[edit] Comments

At LF: rule that derives a kind of conjunction of referential indices:

 ... [NPi [NPj ... -> ... [NPi NPj]i,j ...

This rule accounts for cases of crossed binding at LF (see Bach-Peters paradox), and has been proposed as an account of the interpretation of multiple questions.

[edit] Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

[edit] References

• Chomsky, Noam A. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht:Foris.
• Higginbotham, J. & R. May 1981. Questions, Quantifiers and Crossing. Linguistic Review, 41-80.
• May, Robert. 1985. Logical form. MIT Press.