[On English Multiple Discourse-Related Movement]

J UOEH. 2018;40(3):243-251. doi: 10.7888/juoeh.40.243.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

In light of the cartographic Complementizer Phrase (CP) analysis, in which two computationally requisite functional projections (i.e., Force Phrase: ForceP and Finite Phrase: FinP) sandwich two optional discourse-related projections (i.e., Topic Phrase: TopP and Focus Phrase: FocP) in the clause-peripheral domain, it is theoretically reasonable to postulate the former as phase, a basic computational unit assumed in recent minimalist syntactic theory. We call this hybrid-type of syntactic analysis Phase-based CP Cartographic Analysis. Using this, we investigate multiple discourse-related movement (MDM) phenomena in English, including Topicalization, Focalization and Wh-movement at the clausal periphery. Our approach can appropriately capture the grammaticality regarding word order, which is derived from the combination of these clause-peripheral movements.

Keywords: Wh-movement; cartographic CP; focalization; phase; topicalization.

MeSH terms

  • Communication
  • Humans
  • Language*
  • Speech*