Wh-Movement: Moving On (Current Studies in Linguistics)

373 Pages·2006·1.74 MB·English

by  Noam Chomsky

Cheng_pb.qxd 5/9/06 9:03 AM Page 1
WH L I N G U I S T I C S
-Movement W WHO
Moving On
H
Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng and Norbert Corver -
EDITED BY
M
Noam Chomsky WHAT
FOREWORD BY o
v
e
Wh-movement—the phenomenon by which inter- CONTRIBUTORS m
rogative words appear at the beginning of interrog-
Brian Agbayani
ative sentences—is one of the central displacement e
operations of human language. Noam Chomsky’s Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng n WHERE
1977 paper “On Wh-Movement,” a landmark in the Sandra Chung t
:
study of wh-movement (and movement in general), Norbert Corver M
showed that this computational operation is the Caterina Donati -Movement
o
basis of a variety of syntactic constructions that had
Kleanthes K. Grohmann v
previously been described in terms of construction- i
Toru Ishii n WHEMNoving On
specific rules. Taking Chomsky’s paper as a starting
g
point, the contributors to this collection reconsider a Heejeong Ko
O
number of the issues raised in “On Wh-Movement” Howard Lasnik
n
from the perspective of contemporary Minimalist
Philip LeSourd
syntactic theory (which explores the thesis that
Chris H. Reintges
human language is a system optimally designed to
WHY
Luigi Rizzi
meet certain interface conditions imposed by other
cognitive systems with which the language faculty Balázs Surányi
interacts). They discuss such wh-movement issues Akira Watanabe
as wh-phrases and pied-piping, the formation of
Henrietta Yang
A-bar chains and the copy theory of movement, C
h
cyclicity and locality of wh-movement, and the EDITED BY
e
typology of wh-constructions. By reconsidering core “A topic of everlasting importance n
g Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng
characteristics of the wh-movement operation first and interest, kept at the forefront
a
systematically discussed by Chomsky from the of the field by this fine collection. n and Norbert Corver
d
Minimalist perspective, this volume contributes to Some of the articles, by a good
C
the further development of the theory ofwh-move-
mix of eminent and rising scholars, o
ment and to the general theory of movement. r FOREWORD BY
v
have already attracted widespread
e
Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng is Professor of Linguistics at attention. Not to be missed.” r, Noam Chomsky
e
Leiden University. Norbert Corver is Professor of —C.-T. James Huang, Professor of d
i
Dutch Linguistics at Utrecht University. Linguistics, Harvard University to
r
s
Current Studies in Linguistics 42
0-262-53279-4 978-0-262-53279-2 The MIT Press
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
http://mitpress.mit.edu
Wh-Movement: Moving On

Wh-Movement: Moving On edited by Lisa Lai-Shen
Cheng and Norbert Corver
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
62006MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrights reserved. Nopart of thisbook maybereproduced inanyform by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tionstorageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or
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Cambridge,MA02142.
ThisbookwassetinTimesNewRomanon3B2byAscoTypesetters,HongKong,
andprintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Wh-movement:movingon/editedbyLisaLai-ShenChengandNorbertCorver.
p. cm.—(Currentstudiesinlinguistics;42)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-262-03346-1(alk.paper)—ISBN0-262-53279-4(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral—Interrogative. 2.Grammar,
Comparativeandgeneral—Wordorder. 3.Grammar,Comparativeand
general—Syntax. 4.Minimalisttheory(Linguistics). I.Cheng,LisaLai-Shen.
II.Corver,Norbert,1963– III.Currentstudiesinlinguisticsseries;42.
P299.I57W47 2006
415—dc22 2005058016
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Contributors vii
Foreword ix
NoamChomsky
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter1
LinesofInquiryintoWh-Movement 1 LisaLai-ShenChengandNorbert
Corver
PARTI
Wh-PhrasesandPied-Piping 19
Chapter2
OnWh-HeadMovement 21 CaterinaDonati
Chapter3
ThePied-PiperFeature 47 AkiraWatanabe
Chapter4
Pied-Piping,FeatureMovement,and BrianAgbayani
Wh-Subjects 71
PARTII
A¯-ChainsandCopyTheory 95
Chapter5
OntheFormofChains:Criterial LuigiRizzi
PositionsandECPE¤ects 97
Chapter6
OnOvertandCovertWh-andRelative HenriettaYang
MovementinHindiandPunjabi 135
vi Contents
Chapter7
Movement,Wh-Agreement,and ChrisH.Reintges,PhilipLeSourd,
ApparentWh-in-situ 165 andSandraChung
PARTIII
CyclicityandLocality 195
Chapter8
ConceptionsoftheCycle 197 HowardLasnik
Chapter9
OntheRelaxationofIntervention ToruIshii
E¤ects 217
PARTIV
Wh-Constructions 247
Chapter10
TopIssuesinQuestions:Topics– KleanthesK.Grohmann
Topicalization–Topicalizability 249
Chapter11
MechanismsofWh-Saturationand Bala´zsSura´nyi
InterpretationinMultipleWh-
Movement 289
Chapter12
OntheStructuralHeightofReason HeejeongKo
Wh-Adverbials:Acquisitionand
Consequences 319
Index 351
Contributors
Brian Agbayani Bala´zs Sura´nyi
California StateUniversity, Fresno Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng Akira Watanabe
Leiden University University ofTokyo
SandraChung Henrietta Yang
University of California,Santa The University of Texas at Austin
Cruz
Norbert Corver
UtrechtUniversity
Caterina Donati
University of Urbino
Kleanthes K. Grohmann
University of Cyprus
Toru Ishii
MeijiUniversity
Heejeong Ko
Stony Brook University
Howard Lasnik
University of Maryland
PhilipLeSourd
Indiana University
Chris H. Reintges
Leiden University/ULCL
LuigiRizzi
University of Siena

Foreword
Noam Chomsky
This outstanding collection of papers is an impressive testimonial to the
great advances in empirical knowledge and theoretical understanding in
recent years. Many of the questions addressed here could not even have
been posed, let alone answered, not very long ago. Nevertheless, many
of the earliest questions remain, though in quite new forms, as attested
by a number of the papers here: questions about the nature of cyclic/
compositional operations; locality; what moves (heads? features?); the
nature of the obscure issue of pied-piping; projection under movement;
varieties of marking of intermediate positions; whether movement is
implicated at all where that has often been assumed, rather than other
relations with base generation; and many other questions that have a
familiar ring. Old chestnuts often have hard shells. That should hardly
surprise us in a field that barely existed 50 years ago, despite a tradition
going back thousands of years.
Thebasicissueaddressedinthesepapersistheubiquitousphenomenon
of displacement: basically, the fact that expressions are produced/heard
in one position but interpreted as well in other positions—positions in
which, furthermore, similar expressions (or even the same ones) appear
and are interpreted in terms of natural local configurations. That much
is uncontroversial. How to deal with the phenomenon, however, is any-
thingbut uncontroversial.
Within generative grammar in the modern sense, the earliest work that
tried to account for displacement, 50 years ago, did not have rules of
movement at all. Rather, such phenomena as wh-displacement were for-
mulated in terms of permutation. Thus, sentences (1) and (2) were in
e¤ect derived by permutation of X and a in the syntactic object X-a-Y,
where a is the element displaced to the front; (2) was derived from the
counterpart of (1) with who replacing Mary (technically, the form under-
lying it).