The Interaction of Quantifier Scope in the Agree system: Going back to QR?

Abstract

Hornstein (1995, 1999) has shown that Quantifier Raising (QR) as a rule of Universal Grammar can be eliminated. He argues that it is supported not only by the theory-internal reasons in the Minimalist Program (MP), but also by empirical motivations. His system which exploits Case chain structure or other A-chains crucially relies on movement with copying and deletion whether it is feature movement (Attract) or phrasal movement. The recent version of MP, however, suggests that we dispense with Attract, together with complications it produces and Checking reduces to deletion under matching (Agree) with a local goal activated by the uninterpretable feature without movement. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to show that non-QR approach to the relative scope of quantifiers still works in the new system of MP. It is argued that the EPP effect by the functional category (T and v in particular) is responsible for the explanation rather than Case driven A-movement. Some apparent problems presented for the support of the existence of QR are also discussed and it is shown that there is no empirical loss regarding them.