Move Alpha ― Conditions on Its Application and Output

This major contribution to modern syntactic theory elaborates aprinciples-and-parameters framework in which the differences and similarities among languages withrespect to WH-questions can be captured. Move a is part of an overall program, initiated byNoam Chomsky, to create a global theory in which the entire transformational component can bereduced to a single process, Move a. Lasnik and Saito are concerned particularly withbounding requirements on movement (Subjacency) and proper government requirements on traces (TheEmpty Category Principle).The first two chapters present and extend the ideas proposed in theauthor's earlier article, "On the Nature of Proper Government." Included are detailed discussions of?-marking, the general rule Affect a, and the definition of proper government,particularly as these relate to WH constructions. The next two chapters propose a modification ofChomsky's Barriers Theory on the basis of a close examination of topicalization and examine theconsequences of the modified theory. The discussion extends to restrictions on possible antecedentgovernors and the implications for quantifier raising and NP-movement of these restrictions.Consequences for Superiority are also considered, and a modified version of this condition isproposed, as is an extension of Chomsky's Uniformity Condition. The final chapter takes up furthertheoretical issues and alternative approaches.Howard Lasnik is Professor and Mamoru Saito isAssociate Professor, both at the University of Connecticut.

Mamoru Saito is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut.