Movement

T-to-C movement
A-movement
 Brief recap
• What types of movement have we mentioned
so far?
 Brief recap
• What types of movement have we mentioned so
far?
• Head-to-head movement (if there is no intervening
head in between):
 main verb moves from V to T in French
 Auxiliaries move from their head positions to T in
English
• Phrasal movement:
• NP moves to the spec TP to satisfy the EPP features
 T-to-C movement
• This is another head
movement in English
• Modals and auxiliaries raise
from T to C
 T-to-C movement continued…
• What happens in case there is no modal or
auxiliary present in T?
• Do-support kicks in!
 A-movement
• What is A-movement?
• A-movement is movement to an argument
position (hence the term). We have seen that
the subject argument position must be
outside VP. Therefore we postulate movement
from Spec VP to SpecTP.
• What is the motivation for this movement in
English?
• What is the motivation for this movement in English?
• When an NP undergoes A-movement, it moves to a
position where structural case is licensed.
• Structural case: nominative and accusative – abstract
case (morphologically expressed only on pronouns)
• Nominative case is licensed by finite T head
• Accusative case is licensed locally, by V head and P
head
• Accusative licensing
(1) a. I saw Jane/her/them.
b. *I saw she/they.
c. I talked about Jane/her/them.
d. *I talked about she/they.
• Nominative licensing
• Nominative licensing motivates movement to the subject
position, the position where nominative case is licensed by
finite T head.
• Nominative is licensed under spec-head agreement within TP.
We find this type of movement/agreement in all finite clauses.

Any argument can move to the subject

position. The closest argument to the
SpecTP moves.
• It is important to notice that Case is not correlated
with θ-roles.
– I met him (at the airport).
– He was met by me (at the airport).
• Case has to do with where the DP ends up at
surface structure, and θ-roles have to do with
where the DP starts out at deep structure.
• Case Filter (SS): All DPs must have Case
• If a DP does not get case, there is a crash
 Passive in English
• In English, as in most other languages, active
sentences like (1a) have passive counterparts like (1b).
• (1) a. Active Nancy approved them.
Thematic roles Agent Theme
Functions Subject Direct object
• b.Passive They were approved (by Nancy).
Thematic roles Theme Agent
Functions Subject Object of preposition
 Passive in English
• Passivization has a number of effects.
• First and foremost, the agent argument, which is expressed
as the subject of the active sentence, is demoted in the
passive to an optional by phrase.
• Second, the theme argument is promoted from object to
subject.
• In other words, the agent and theme arguments are linked to
different grammatical functions in the passive than in the
active.
• Third, a past participle in the passive, unlike one in the
active, can't check objective case.
 Burzio’s generalization and the passive
construction
• What is the syntactic representation of a passive
sentence? Are active and passive sentences derived
differently? In other words, should a passive (participle)
verb be represented as another intransitive verb?

• The thieves were caught.

• The thieves were escaping.

What are the similarities between the two?

What are the differences?
 Similarities

• The verbs in both sentences have one

syntactic argument.
• The traditional notion of ‘intransitivity’ can be
applied to both cases. Passive verbs are never
followed by objects.
 Differences

• The subject of the passive sentence has a

special thematic role. Most of the time it is
Theme. It is never an Agent.
• Which intransitive verbs is it more similar to –
unergatives or unaccusatives?
• Let’s try to draw the tree!
Derivation of a passive sentence
 Burzio’s generalization
• The trigger for movement of the internal argument to
the subject position is related to the special properties
of the participle verb!
• Burzio (1986):
Verbs that are not associated with a thematic role in
their specifier position are unable to assign structural
case. The lack of case-licensor causes the movement
of the internal NP argument.
• Can you predict for which type of verbs this
generalization also has implications?
 Let’s practice!
• Explain the grammaticality contrasts in (1), (2)
and (3).
(1) a. I invited her
b. *I invited she
(2) a. *Peter worried about they
b. Peter worried about them
(3) a. She likes Steven
b. *Her likes Steven
• How do we account for the grammaticality of
(4a) and ungrammaticality of (4b-d)?
(4) a. She has been tricked by an infamous con man
b. *Her has been tricked by an infamous con
man
c. *Has been tricked she by an infamous con man
d. *Has been tricked her by the infamous con
man
• Assuming that the theme argument of unaccusative
verbs like arrive originates in the V complement
position, explain the (un)grammaticality of the following
sentences with reference to NP movement and
nominative/accusative licensing.

(5) a. *Arrived her

b. *Arrived she
c. *Her arrived
d. She arrived
 Homework!

• Draw the trees for the following sentences

(6) a. The temple was built in the 5th century.
b. Peter was running at noon.
c. The building collapsed.
 Wh-movement
• Wh-movement is a type of phrasal movement.
(The phrase containing a wh-element has to
move from its original position to the Spec of CP)
• The wh-phrase is not just an NP but can be any
category.
• All types (categories ) of wh-phrases land in the
same Spec CP position.
• In English only wh-phrase can move to Spec CP
(compare with Serbian).
 Wh-movement

• The wh-phrase is interpreted in its original

(and not its final position):
(1) What have you seen?
(2) How quickly will Tony arrive here?

What are the original positions of the two

phrases?
 Wh-movement
(1) What have you seen?
(2) How quickly will Jovan finish the exam?
• The wh-phrase in (1) is interpreted as the
object (therefore the complement) of see
(remember that see is obligatorily transitive).
• The wh-phrase in (2) is associated with the
verb finish in the lower clause, although it
ended up higher.
Which animal will the lions devour?

Where else to we encounter wh-movement?

 Relative clauses
• Wh-movement is involved in the derivation of
the relative clauses as well.
(11) a. She met the man whom I often talk about.
b. She met the man about whom I often talk.

• Relative clauses are adjuncts inside NPs. The

relative C-head does not trigger T-to-C
movement.
 Revision videos

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X7V8wp
jaGI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZC5L6h
U300