Chomsky (1995, 1998, 1999, 2001) consistently argues that the expletive there as an EPP checker merges in [Spec,T]. From the perspective of the labeling (Chomsky 2005, 2006, Cecchetto and Donati 2007), this opens a possibility for a lexical item to become a label. This paper argues against External Merge of there in [Spec,T], on the ground that it inevitably yields mislabeling at the point of the derivation where it merges in [Spec,T] as a head (i.e., the whole sentence is interpreted as DP, not TP). Three alternatives will be presented that there is base-generated below T: as the head D, the SC predicate, and the [Spec, weak vP]. This squib claims that External Merge of there to the spec of a weak vP is most persuasive for the labeling algorithm.
1. Introduction
2. Labeling Algorithms
3. Internal Merge of there to [Spec,T]
4. Concluding Remarks
(0)
(0)