MaxElide and Clause Structure in Scottish Gaelic

The Goidelic languages (Scottish Gaelic, Irish) have basic VSOX word order in finite clauses, and many authors have proposed that this order is derived by moving the finite verb to T, as in Romance, but leaving the subject in situ in Spec,vP (see McCloskey 1983, 1991, 1996, Ramchand 1997). The most compelling evidence for this structure—in particular, the proposal that the verb moves to T—is that the verb only moves in finite clauses; in nonfinite clauses, the verb stays in situ, with the subject to its left. Finiteness distinctions condition verb movement to T in French and other languages (Pollock 1989), so it is proposed that this is what we see in Gaelic and Irish. On this analysis, the only difference between Goidelic and Romance is whether subjects need to move to Spec,TP: this is required in Romance, but not required (and hence, by...