Predicate-EPP in Niuean, Tongan, and beyond

Abstract

This chapter investigates predicate-EPP languages as a typological class through comparison of Irish, Inuktitut, and Niuean and their contrast with French and Finnish. It is argued that predicate-EPP languages are characterized by raising of a predicate, rather than a verbal element. Furthermore, this chapter demonstrates that Niuean exhibits all of the typological properties of predicate-EPP languages described by Doner (2019), including a lack of non-finite clauses, a merged C and T, optional tense, and non-contrastive definiteness. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that Tongan also can best be analyzed as having a predicate-EPP type, contra Otsuka (2005). It is argued that the subject clitic is able to cliticize to T through a process of Local Dislocation after raising of the remnant vP, which best accounts for the surface morpheme order in Tongan.