Category-sensitive escape from islands in Limbum and Asante Twi
Johannes Hein
September 2024 

While strong islands generally constitute domains from which extraction is not possible it has been observed that under certain conditions they may allow DP but not PP gaps. Based on the recent literature on Asante Twi (Kwa, Ghana) and on novel data from Limbum (Grassfields Bantu, Cameroon) this paper shows that strong island configurations in these two African languages are permeable to nominal extractees without restrictions, but block the otherwise admissible movement of VPs and PPs. As DP-displacement from islands shows properties of A-movement, an explanation in terms of base-generation and binding of a covert resumptive pronoun, which is only available for nominal elements, is not feasible. Taking into account the overall distribution of overt and covert resumptive pronouns, for Asante Twi, an account of the selective island permeability in terms of repair by resumption as suggested in Korsah & Murphy (2020, 2024) might be possible. For the Limbum pattern, however, this paper argues that such an approach seems implausible. It then goes on to develop an analysis of selective island permeability based on the distribution of phi-features and their interaction with complementizer agreement.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008443 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Languages
keywords:	island escape, absence of island effects, Ā-dependencies, focus-movement, wh-movement, reconstruction effects, category sensitivity, complementizer agreement, phase unlocking, repair by resumption, akan, asante twi, limbum, syntax
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