Intervention effects in Czech clitic climbing

Abstract

This paper examines restrictions on the ability of Czech second-position clitics to climb out of embedded clauses. Clitics cluster together in a set order, and while arguments of a single verb can freely rearrange themselves to match the required order, arguments of embedded infinitives generally cannot climb over controllers in the matrix clause in object control constructions. I propose that clitic movement is due to a DP probe that comes equipped with a hierarchy of case features, and that clitics reached by the probe in the wrong order are trapped and cannot cliticize. Arguments may freely scramble within a single TP, allowing arbitrary reordering, but embedded arguments cannot scramble over matrix arguments, leading to the restrictions in object control sentences.