Scales of Defectivity: An Extension of Hu (2023)

Abstract

Unlike Folli & Harley (2007) and Belletti (2017), Hu’s (2023) minimalist account of French causative clitic placement relies on feature completeness/defectivity of clitics and their hosts. This reply shows that Hu’s proposal cannot currently account for dialectal variation in clitic Case and argument placement in the faire-à (FA) construction. However, straightforward and theoretically grounded modifications resolve these empirical gaps. Patterns of inherent/neuter se omission and embedded negation provide independent support for this revised model, reinforcing Hu’s implicit link between causation syntax and Raising-to-Object (RO).