Labeling in Embedded Clauses: The Role of Externalization and Complementizer Overtness

Abstract

This paper investigates the mechanisms of labeling in embedded clauses, focusing on the critical role of externalization and complementizer overtness. While traditional minimalist theories posit that feature-sharing through overt movement is necessary for successful labeling, empirical evidence from wh-in-situ languages such as Korean and Japanese challenges this assumption. In these languages, embedded CPs are properly labeled and interpreted even though wh-elements remain in situ, without undergoing overt movement to SpecCP. Instead, overt complementizers supply sufficient morphosyntactic information to allow labeling. Building on the interface-sensitive approach of Murphy and Shim, this study argues that the overt realization of complementizers provides a morphophonological anchor that enables labeling independently of movement. Further drawing on Kitahara and Seely’s findings, a revised labeling algorithm is proposed: labeling is determined by minimal search for overt morphophonological material at the sensorimotor (SM) interface. This revised view also advances a more dynamic understanding of the interaction between syntax and interface systems.