English Null Complementizer as a Clitie and Intonational Phrase Boundary

English Null Complementizer as a Clitie and Intonational Phrase Boundary

The ECP account for the distribution of the English null complementizer in that-less clauses does not work, because the notion of government is eliminated in the minimalist framework. Several attempts have been made to explain the distribution of the null complementizer in English, without appealing to the notion of government. This article is an attempt to explain the distribution of null complementizers with the PF approach, assuming that a null complementizer is a kind of clitic, which is attached to the preceding host and that the intonational phrase boundary blocks cliticization, even though the null clitic and the preceding host are adjacent. In this paper, I also show the interaction of the presence of an adjunct and cliticization. With the presence of an adjunct, intonational phrasings could change and this gives an effect on the cliticization of a null complementizer.