Resumen de Overt and covert dependencies in albanian

Giuseppina Turano

• In Albanian a K-word can be used as an interrogative, as a polarity item (PI) and, in combination with certain particles, as a quantifier. I propose an analysis of these elements as variables in the sense of Heim (1982). In order to receive an interrogative reading, a K-word must obligatorily move to a Focus phrase projection. Overt movement is due to the presence of a (strong) Focus feature on the K-word. In the absence of such a feature, a K-word remains in situ and can only be interpreted as a PI. The set of possible binders that license PI includes the negation, question operators, conditional complementizers, modal verbs and modal particles. The properties of PIs are satisfied by covert dependency formation. This dependency does not involve abstract movement but rather a binding relation. More precisely, polarity items and their operators form a head-to-head dependency sensitive to strong and weak islands.