Conspicuous Absences: Mutation & Extraction in Negated Contexts

Abstract

In this chapter, we continue our investigation of Irish clause-structure through an examination of some apparent counter-examples to the Mutation Hypothesis proposed at the end of Chapter 2.¹ These are grammatical particles which either fail to trigger the ICM effect predicted by the Mutation Hypothesis, or trigger the ‘wrong’ mutation effect, i.e., eclipsis where lenition is expected, or vice versa. The first case is instantiated by the negation morpheme gan shown in (la), which fails to induce mutation, and which minimally contrasts in its behavior with the homophonous preposition gan, meaning ‘without’, which invariably triggers lenition (lb):

• a. abair leis [_IP gan pósadh/* phósadh] tell him NEG marry ‘tell him not to marry.’

• b. páiste [_PP gan mhúineadh/* múineadh] child without manners ‘an unmannerly child.’

I would like to thank Joseph Aoun, Steve Harlow, Jim McCloskey, Ian Roberts, Tim Stowell, Lisa Travis, Jean-Roger Vergnaud and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this chapter, as well as to audiences at the 1991 Spring Meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain and the 27th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. This chapter has been extensively revised in light of the comments of an anonymous SNLLT reviewer, to whom I am grateful. For their help with some of the data in this chapter, I would also thank Dónall Óbaoill, Gráinne Gallagher, and Mary Conlan.