Guilliot (2006b)

• Guilliot, Nicolas. 2006b. 'A top-down analysis for reconstruction', Lingua 116:1888–1914.

 Abstract:
 In this paper, I argue for a top-down derivational approach to reconstruction facts. I defend two
 related proposals to account for some puzzling and unresolved data on reconstruction regarding
 resumption, relativization and cyclicity. First, I argue for a syntactic top-down derivation in the sense
 of Phillips (1996) and Richards (1999). Second, I argue that the assignment of semantic values to any
 referential expression throughout the interpretation procedure also operates derivationally and in
 parallel with the syntactic derivation. This analysis will be supported mainly by data from Breton, but
 also from Welsh (Rouveret, 2002), Italian (Bianchi, 1995), Lebanese Arabic (Aoun et al., 2001), and
 English (Fox, 2000).