Recognizing copies: On the definition of Non-Distinctiveness

Abstract

The standard approach to Non-Distinctiveness, the sameness-like relation between elements forming a chain under Copy Theory, involves assuming that some grammatical mechanism marks as non-distinct the syntactic objects related by the Copy operation. In this paper, I argue that Non-Distinctiveness is better explained as an inclusion relation between the features of constituents in a local domain. This definition offers interesting conceptual and empirical advantages regarding wh-copying, non-identical doubling and anti-reconstruction. Moreover, I demonstrate that definitions of Non-Distinctiveness based on notions such as identity and phases do not allow capturing basic cases that are trivially derived by the inclusion-based approach.