Movement and optionality in syntax
This thesis concerns itself with the core syntactic phenomenon traditionally thought of within Principles and Parameters approaches in terms of movement. The point of departure is the observation that in two important respects, the characterization of this phenomenon in the recent Minimalist model of grammar (Chomsky 1993, 1995) (in terms of the operation Move) seems to fall short of that in the earlier GB model (Chomsky 1981, 1986) (in terms of the rule Move-a): first, the notion that movement operations apply freely seems impossible to maintain - a theoretical inadequacy; second, there is no obvious way of dealing with ~optionality~ phenomena - an empirical inadequacy. This thesis argues, however, that these apparent serious inadequacies of the Minimalist framework are in fact principledly soluble, and crucially without reverting to a GB-type model. The thesis falls into two parts, corresponding to the theoretical and empirical problems noted above. The central proposal of Part I is the Copy Hypothesis (Chapter 2): ~all copies in a chain are active in the computational system~. The relevance of this proposal is that, due ultimately to very fundamental properties of the standard Minimalist model, it actually
Pettiward, Anna Margaret
Grammar
Movement and optionality in syntax. This thesis concerns itself with the core syntactic phenomenon traditionally thought of within Principles and Parameters approaches in terms of movement. The point of departure is the observation that in two important respects, the characterization of this phenomenon in the recent Minimalist model of grammar (Chomsky 1993, 1995) (in terms of the operation Move) seems to fall short of that in the earlier GB model (Chomsky 1981, 1986) (in terms of the rule Move-a): first, the notion that movement operations apply freely seems impossible to maintain - a theoretical inadequacy; second, there is no obvious way of dealing with ~optionality~ phenomena - an empirical inadequacy. This thesis argues, however, that these apparent serious inadequacies of the Minimalist framework are in fact principledly soluble, and crucially without reverting to a GB-type model. The thesis falls into two parts, corresponding to the theoretical and empirical problems noted above. The central proposal of Part I is the Copy Hypothesis (Chapter 2): ~all copies in a chain are active in the computational system~. The relevance of this proposal is that, due ultimately to very fundamental properties of the standard Minimalist model, it actually
movement optionality syntax concern core syntactic_phenomenon traditionally think within_principles parameters approach term movement point_departure observation two_important respect characterization phenomenon recent minimalist model grammar chomsky term operation move seem fall_short earlier model chomsky term rule move first notion movement operation apply freely seem impossible maintain theoretical inadequacy second obvious way deal optionality phenomena empirical inadequacy argues however apparent serious inadequacy minimalist_framework fact soluble crucially without type model fall_two_part correspond theoretical_empirical problem note above central proposal part copy hypothesis all copy chain active computational_system relevance proposal due ultimately fundamental property standard minimalist model actually