On the syntax and processing of whquestions in spanish 1ggg grant goodall university of california, san diego it is often stated that minimalism has a therapeutic effect on syntactic theory. Based on the cambridge grammar of the english language. The book does not even sketch the major syntactic constructions of english. Collectively, subj and comps are called the valence lists. In plain terms, it refers to an asymmetry between the syntactical arrangement of words or morphemes in a question and the form of answers to that question. Proposal for the syntax of whquestions, illustrated with whmovement of a direct object. Whexpressions dp d d who dp d d what dp d d what np book dp d d which np book advp adv adv when. For which x, x a person such that botong likes the book that x wrote. As a baseline, we will consider movement from an embedded declarative clause, as in 3a. The children in the experimental groups differed according to age, dialect, and clinical status, as well as several control variables such as gender, socioeconomic status, and geographic region. Questions containing wh phrases are known aswhquestions. Movements like wh movement, which cannot create new binders for anaphors, are often called abar movement also written a movement. In a question like the one in 8, the whword whatappears atthe beginning of the clause.
Abar, in this context, just means not athat is, this is the type of movement of phrases which is not a movement. An introduction to english syntax universitas brawijaya. Consequently the obligatory overt whmovement which has been discussed. Among the most important results of this enterprise is a set of locality conditions, including most notably rosss island constraints and chomskys subjacency condition.
This website and its content is subject to our terms and conditions. Most of the examples are indeed from english, but the book deals with the general concepts necessary for analysing syntax whether of english or of some other language. Sentences are not simply linear strings of words but are phrases, which are linked together in hierarchical structures. It happens in relaqve clauses as well among other places. In english, a strong, active voice sentence will always have the subject doing the action of the sentence. Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences. The comps list is what is expressed as a sister of the head, and the subj list is what is expressed as a sister of the vp.
Forming whquestions are a little like making algebraic equations, no. The distinction between the steadystate grammar competence and the way the. Whmovement in questions is a central topic of contemporary syntax as well as. It is concerned primarily with word order in a sentence and with the agreement of words when they are used together. In short, a movement moves syntactic objects words, phrases into positions where grammatical functions can be assigned. I visited the park where washington gathered the revoluqonary army. The complexity of a writers or speakers sentences creates a formal or informal level of diction that is presented to its audience. We call these whquestions because most of the english words that we use in these questions are spelled with wh. The wrench with which whrelative pronoun movement out of noun complement clause 31 a. On the syntax and processing of whquestions in spanish. Even though sentences are constructed in specific ways according to each language languagespecific constraints, there are syntactic rules which apply universally to all.
The whrelative pronoun moves to speccp, and the syntactic head of the clauseis a silent complementizer, just as in an indirect question. Syntactic movement is the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities. While wh fronting occurs in both direct and indirect questions, there is a key word. Syntax is the study of phrase and sentence structure. Asking questions and looking forinformation under the form ofanswers is a natural human activity. John made the claim that the police caught the murderer of smith. Tes global ltd is registered in england company no 02017289 with its registered office at 26 red lion square london wc1r 4hq. Whrelative pronoun movement out of whcomplement 30 a. This dialect of english is like many dialects including mine in that it allows speakers to mark whwords as plural by putting the word all after them. The structure ofthe relative clause in 29b is given in 31a, and adjoining therelative clause so that it modifies the noun peopleyields thestructure in 31b. One sense in which thi s is t rue is that minimalism f orces us to examine analyse s that are suspiciously complex and stipulative and ask whether the.
French, malay importantly, when moved, languages always move the whword to the same position to cp. Abar movement, nonargument movement, the movement of arguments or nonarguments to nonargument positions, e. See the examples and the explanations on the page referenced. This paper presents a brief account of english syntax based on the cambridge grammar of the english language, 1 providing an overview of the main constructions and categories in the language. Movement applies to a phrase that contains the whword. Fundamentals of english syntax know that word is an. Whmovement, topicalization, relative clause formation. Japanese, korean, swahili those which optionally move them e. Nov 10, 2012 a comparative study ofquestion formation. Whmovementthe phenomenon by which interrogative words appear at the beginning of interrogative sentencesis one of the central displacement operations of human language. Lets look at an example of how a sentence can be rearranged to create varied syntax. Please note that the concept of amovement is taken for granted only in government and binding gb theory, and related offshoots.
The insitu option is also there in whmovement languages as in english you. I will show that english also has tp tense phrase with a t head. Thus, it is possible to strand the quantifier in intermediate spec, cp. The text and exercises cover a variety of english data and. Preface one important aspect of teaching english syntax to native and nonnative undergraduate students alike involves the balance in the overall approach. Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence. In main clauses, in standard english, wh movement regularly cooccurs with. Basic english syntax with exercises mark newson marianna hordos daniel pap krisztina szecsenyi gabriella toth veronika vincze 2006 bolcsesz konzorcium dd dd 1 2006. The present version is intended primarily for members. English, as in 12, the whword continues on to the front of the sentence, to cp 1, and leaves an. Preface one important aspect of teaching english syntax to native and nonnative undergraduate students alike involves the balance in the overall approach between facts and theory. Assuming downward movement to take place is necessary in the traditional framework because it is assumed that lexical verbs in english cannot leave the vp and this way we can also account for the.
The lf structure of 3a is thus 3b, in which the whword which was unmoved at s. The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of urdu and english in terms of whmovement in the light of the minimalist program mp as the. In this unit, we see that move can take a whphrase from its deep structure position and move it. Questions containing whphrases are known aswhquestions. These sentences will follow a basic subjectverbobject format. So it is, in a sense, acting as a kind of police officer for the way in which sentences are constructed. Sep 28, 2014 this website and its content is subject to our terms and conditions. The status of whexpletives and the partial whmovement. The influence of first language on the processing of whmovement in. Since possessors in english seem to occupy the same syntactic position as whdeterminers, it is.
A wh phrase that does not undergo wh movement1 is said to remain in situ, and is sometimes referred to as wh in situ. Thestructure of the relative clause in 33b is given in 39a, andadjoining the relative clause so that it modifies the noun peopleyields the structure in 39b. Syntactic categories all words in a sentence belong to a particular part of speech or, in more modern parlance, category or syntactic category, like those in 1. In english, wh movement occurs to form a question in both main and subordinate clauses. Tes global ltd is registered in england company no 02017289 with its registered office. This paper explores the crosslinguistic status of the socalled whscopemarker strategy of wide scope assignment through the study of its instantiation in hungarian, assessing the role and distribution of the expletivelike whelement wh. This lends support to the cyclicity of wh movement shown here. Whmovement across dialects and disorder short title. Language has often been characterized as a systematic correlation between certain types of. After establishing the existence of the construction in hungarian via novel types of arguments, a variety of evidence is presented showing the inadequacy. Whmovement is triggered by the presence of an interrogative pronoun.
In the last unit, we extended our model of the syntax component of the mental grammar. Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it. Having established that wh movement is subject to the island constraints in questions see questions for some basic information about questions, we then use the constraints as a diagnostic that certain further constructions in english, including relative clauses and socalled topicalization, are derived by wh movement as well. In the housevocabulary animals and pictures polling dayvocabulary uses of like after before ago since for irregular plurals words and suffixes. Apr 01, 2008 english syntax helps students appreciate the various sentence patterns available in the language, understand insights into the core data of its syntax, develop analytic abilities to explore patterns of english in more depth, and learn precise ways of formalizing syntactic analysis. In english, at least, it appears to be movement to the specifier of cp. Below are a few examples of different types of syntax in english.
The following questions relate to the lecture notes and exercises for the syntax topic. Fundamentals of english syntax know that word is an adjective. Movement was first postulated by structuralist linguists who expressed it in terms of discontinuous constituents or displacement. Syntax meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. Forming wh questions are a little like making algebraic. This textbookan abridged version of radfords minimalist syntax and the syntax of english provides a concise and accessible introduction to current syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of chomskys minimalist programme. In linguistics, whmovement also known as whfronting, whextraction, whraising concerns rules of syntax involving the placement of interrogative words. When the question is expressed with a subordinate clause, however, it is an indirect question. For head movement, its a head that moves, and it moves to another head position. Consequently the obligatory overt wh movement which has been discussed. Obligatory overt wh movement in a wh insitu language. Gb syntax problems assignment 5 english has a set of words known as whwords who, what, which, where, when, why, etc. For whmovement, its a whole phrase that moves, and it ends up in the specifier of cp.
We discuss wh words, wh questions, and wh movement, as well as the property of cyclic movement. The lf structure of 3a is thus 3b, in which the wh word which was unmoved at sstructure has been adjoined to speccp. Phrasescontaining wh words are known as wh phrases. This basically means that the whelement must have the rest of the clause as its sister. English syntax helps students appreciate the various sentence patterns available in the language, understand insights into the core data of its syntax, develop analytic abilities to explore patterns of english in more depth, and learn precise ways of formalizing syntactic analysis. Whmovement and the syntax of sluicing researchgate. In a multiple question in english, one whphrase undergoes whmovement. Jan 25, 2020 syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence. I met the man who peter said that zach believes that fred heard that mary likes.
In linguistics, whmovement concerns rules of syntax involving the placement of interrogative. The syntax of whmovement in multiple tesis doctorals en xarxa. This is the only movement type where we move a constituent down. The whisland constraint is the most basic of the island constraints and is the basis for motivating the idea described in section 2 that movement must occur from cp to cp.
The wh island constraint is the most basic of the island constraints and is the basis for motivating the idea described in section 2 that movement must occur from cp to cp. In many languages english being one of them a whquestion typically involves movement. Assuming the copy theory of movement, cyclic whmovement is further supported by languages in. Gb syntax problems assignment 5 english has a set of words known as wh words who, what, which, where, when, why, etc. Heaberlins book is the most clearcut method of teaching english syntax out there. The interrogative form is part ofevery language grammar, whateverits syntax or degree of complexity. A whphrase that does not undergo whmovement1 is said to remain in situ, and is sometimes referred to as whinsitu. The whrelative pronoun moves to speccp, and the syntactic head of the clause isa silent complementizer, just as in an indirect question. I thought i knew a lot about grammar before i opened this book, now i know everything. In order for a whexpression to have scope over the rest of the clause, it must c commandthe rest of the clause. In each case, assume that the gap in the sentence is to be filled by a single word.
This lends support to the cyclicity of whmovement shown here. There are, however, at least three kinds of questions in which whmovement does not occur aside. Since most interrogative pronouns in english the exception is how start with wh, the process by which interrogative phrases are fronted is referred to as whmovement. In a multiple question in english, one wh phrase undergoes wh movement. There is also another type of movementgoing on here, which well talk about later, which relocateswillfrom t to c its called headmovement. In a multiple question in english, one whphrase undergoes wh movement. Nominal appositives, prepositions, verbmodifying clause indicators, infinitive phrases, this book is loaded with all the chewy, nougaty sentence marking strategies you. Certain constituents appear to have been displaced from the position where they receive important features of interpretation. English syntax 2 know that word is an adjective slowslowly. Assuming the copy theory of movement, cyclic wh movement is further supported by languages in which multiple wh copies are pronounced. This means that before wh movement takes placein a multiple question, there is more than. When the question is expressed with a main clause, it is a direct question. Noam chomskys 1977 paper on whmovement, a landmark in the study of whmovement and movement in general, showed that this computational operation is the basis of a variety of syntactic constructions that had. Please note that the concept of a movement is taken for granted only in government and binding gb theory, and related offshoots.
I will also show that morphemes can move from one position to. Linguistics 101 theoretical syntax university of delaware. Whquestions concerning whquestions, we see three kinds of languages. Syntax, lexical categories, and morphology 1 chapter 1 syntax, lexical categories, and morphology 1. The present study aims at presenting a comparative study of urdu and english in terms of wh movement in the light of the minimalist program mp as the. The format in which words and phrases are arranged to create sentences is called syntax. Middle english examples from ppcme, kroch and taylor 2000.
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