Abstract: Traditional analyses of do-support share two core properties: i) they link do-support with the inability of a verb to form a relation with an functional head, such as T (e.g. via head movement or postsyntactic merger), and ii) they posit a constraint that requires the inflectional head to combine with a verb. Based on crosslinguistic data, we argue against both aspects of the traditional view. First, it incorrectly predicts that V-to-T movement and do-support should not cooccur in a language. And second, it does not capture crosslinguistic generalizations about which inflectional heads are supported by do. I present an analysis of do-support as the outcome of chain splitting, in which a relation between the verb and T is successfully established and only later split. The successful formation of a head chain (containing V, T, and possibly other heads) accounts for the fact that languages with V-to-T movement may exhibit do-support, and derives the attested do-insertion positions from independent properties of head chains in a given language.
{NOTE: Dr. Arregi's research is joint work with Asia Pietraszko, University of Rochester}
