The Labeling Algorithm and Kirundi Inversion Structures

Abstract Moro (2009) proposes that Italian inversion structures provide evidence for one of the predictions of the Labeling Algorithm ( LA , Chomsky 2013, 2015). This is that in structures in which labeling is ambiguous, one of the constituents must be moved to a higher position, instantiated in Italian inversion as an intermediate focus position. However, Italian provides little independent evidence for movement to such a position and the evidence it does provide is limited to symmetrical structures containing two DP s. In this paper, I argue that Kirundi Object‐Verb‐Subject ( OVS ) inversion structures and transitive expletive constructions ( TEC s) (Ura 1996, Ndayiragije 1999) provide more direct evidence for the type of movement that Moro proposes for Italian. Because of a confluence of Kirundi idiosyncrasies, Kirundi shows unambiguously that when the external argument does not move to Spec, TP , it cannot stay in Spec, vP . Importantly, this ban on remaining in Spec, vP cannot be accounted for by appealing to relativized minimality (Rizzi 1990). Kirundi thus instantiates a key prediction of the LA.