Focus, presupposition and light predicate raising in East and Southeast Asia

In a group of genetically unrelated and otherwise fully regular head- initi al SVO languages a particular modal verb is consistently found to occur in predicate-final position, posing a strong empirical challenge to the Univer sal Base Hypothesis argued for in Cinque (1999). Detailed investigation ind icates that the surface forms are however derived from fully regular underl ying structures via a process of focus- driven light predicate raising. Cro ss-linguistic variation in the paradigm then shows that the basic modal str ucture is currently in different stages of development in the languages inv estigated. In Cantonese in particular it is argued that the trigger for VP- raising has now become fully fossilized and no longer reflects its original motivation. The paper concludes that certain movement operations may in ge neral occur without any clearly understandable synchronic trigger. Formally , Chomsky's 'strong categorial/EPP features' are suggested to correspond pr ecisely to this type of movement whose original motivation has weakened and become hidden during the course of language change.