Subextraction

Abstract

Subextraction is the phenomenon that occurs when a constituent is moved out of a larger phrase in which it is embedded. The question arises of when subextraction is possible and when it is not. Furthermore, the question of what accounts for the (im)possibility of subextraction should be answered. These questions are addressed for the nominal domain. Issues that are discussed include the (im)possibility of subextraction of left branch constituents, the (im)possibility of subextraction of right branch constituents, cross-linguistic variation in subextraction behavior, and the role that the syntactic position of the noun phrase plays for subextraction.