Extraction from Coordinate Structures

AbstractThis chapter introduces the Coordinate Structure Constraint, or CSC, Ross’ generalization stating that conjuncts may not be extracted from coordinate structures (the ‘Conjunct Constraint’), and that elements contained within conjuncts may not be extracted from coordinate structures (the ‘Element Constraint’). We demonstrate the applicability of the CSC across several movement types, languages, and conjunctions. However, we also identify several counterexamples to the CSC. The first is the possibility of Across-The-Board extraction, also discovered by Ross. Others include the possibility of extracting whole conjuncts, in violation of the Conjunct Constraint, in languages like Serbo-Croatian, the SLF-construction found in many Germanic languages, and several asymmetric extraction patterns apparently licensed by discourse-semantic ‘scenarios’, which is the focus of Chapters 4-6.