'' Move α'' is a feature of the

Revised Extended Standard Theory Generative grammar, or generativism , is a linguistic theory that regards linguistics as the study of a hypothesised innate grammatical structure. It is a biological or biologistic modification of earlier structuralist theories of linguistic ...

(REST) of

transformational grammar In linguistics, transformational grammar (TG) or transformational-generative grammar (TGG) is part of the theory of generative grammar, especially of natural languages. It considers grammar to be a system of rules that generate exactly those combin ...

developed by

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

in the late 1970s. The term refers to the relation between an indexed constituent and its

trace Trace may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995 * ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993 * Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band * ''The Trace'' (album) Other uses in arts and entertainment * ''Trace'' ...

''t'', e.g., the relation of ''whom'' and '' ' in the example :''Whom₁ do you think you are kidding t₁ ?'' In the 1990s

Minimalist Program In linguistics, the minimalist program is a major line of inquiry that has been developing inside generative grammar since the early 1990s, starting with a 1993 paper by Noam Chomsky. Following Imre Lakatos's distinction, Chomsky presents minima ...

, it became a structure-building operation together with "

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

". "α" is the placeholder symbol for the moved constituent. The constituent (''whom'') and its trace (''t'') are said to form a "chain". A term used in government-binding theory to refer to a single, universal movement rule, which subsumes all specific movement rules; also called alpha movement. The rule permits the movement of any phrasal or lexical category from one part of a sentence to another in such a way that the operation involves substitution or (Chomsky-) adjunction. The application of the transformation is restricted by the subjacency principle of bounding (sub-)theory, and its output is subject to a variety of filters, principles, etc. stated by other (sub-)theories of GB. See also affect alpha. In syntax, the most general formulation of possible movement permitted by a rule. More specific rules include move NP and move wh, which in turn are more general than specific transformations such as those involved in passivization. The single transformational rule occurring in most versions of GB. Usually expressed as 'Move-alpha', it can be stated more fully as 'Move any category to a different position'. The massive overgeneration which this rule would produce in isolation is heavily constrained by the other components of the grammar. Chomsky (1980).

R. L. Trask Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American–British professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, and an authority on the Basque language and the field of historical linguistics. Biography Born in Ol ...

/ A DICTIONARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS IN LINGUISTICS "Move α" in practice means "Move any constituent anywhere". "Affect Alpha" is a generalization to the effect of "Do anything to anything". The latter is viewed with suspicion by proponents of REST as an

overgeneralization A faulty generalization is an informal fallacy wherein a conclusion is drawn about all or many instances of a phenomenon on the basis of one or a few instances of that phenomenon. It is similar to a proof by example in mathematics. It is an exam ...

. "Move α" marks a shift of attention in transformational grammar in around 1980, away from focussing on specific

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...

(the only "rule" is "Move α") to "

Principles A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, such as the la ...

" constraining them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Move alpha Generative syntax Noam Chomsky Syntactic transformation