International Journal of Language & Linguistics

The HEAD-Raising Analysis is Not a Solution: A Reply to Donati and Cecchetto (2011)
Dr. Buthaina Shaheen

Abstract
The structure of English restrictive relative clauses has been the subject of continuous debate in the linguistic literature. Inconsistencies frequently emerge after theories and propositions have been introduced. Being part of such a debate, scholars usually use squibs for reporting analysis of anomalous data without providing solutions to a problem as is the case in articles. This squib aims at providing phenomenon that present challenges for some aspects of Donati and Cecchetto (2011) analysis. Donati and Cecchetto propose a modified version of the raising analysis. They argue that the raising analysis proposed by Kayne (1994) and Bianchi (2000) suffers from drawbacks. The central idea of their proposal is that what is raised in a restrictive relative clause is a noun and not an NP or a DP. The discussion which draws on evidence from reconstruction, movement of wh-phrases, resumption, islands, free relatives, … shows a variety of gaps in the analysis which renders it untenable.

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