A movement paradox is a phenomenon of grammar that challenges the
transformational approach to
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
. The importance of movement paradoxes is emphasized by those theories of syntax (e.g.
lexical functional grammar,
head-driven phrase structure grammar Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) is a highly lexicalized, constraint-based grammar
developed by Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag. It is a type of phrase structure grammar, as opposed to a dependency grammar, and it is the immediate successor ...
,
construction grammar
Construction grammar (often abbreviated CxG) is a family of theories within the field of cognitive linguistics which posit that constructions, or learned pairings of linguistic patterns with meanings, are the fundamental building blocks of human ...
, most
dependency grammar
Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesniè ...
s) that reject movement, i.e. the notion that
discontinuities in syntax are explained by the movement of
constituents.
Syntactic movement
Given a transformational approach to syntax, the following related sentences are explained in terms of
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
:
::a. We talked about
the fact that he was sick for days.
::b.
The fact that he was sick, we talked about ___ for days.
- Example of topicalization
The underlined noun phrase, which contains a clause, is taken to have moved leftward in the second sentence, the blank marking its starting position. A transformational approach to syntax will explain all sorts of discontinuities (e.g.
wh-fronting,
topicalization
Topicalization is a mechanism of syntax that establishes an expression as the sentence or clause topic by having it appear at the front of the sentence or clause (as opposed to in a canonical position further to the right). This involves a phrasal ...
,
extraposition
Extraposition is a mechanism of syntax that alters word order in such a manner that a relatively "heavy" constituent appears to the right of its canonical position. Extraposing a constituent results in a discontinuity and in this regard, it is ...
,
scrambling
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used to describe terrain that falls between hiking and rock climbing (as a “scrambl ...
,
inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
,
shifting) in this manner in terms of movement.
Three types of movement paradoxes
Movement paradoxes challenge the movement account of discontinuities. They occur when the "moved" constituent is acceptable in its derived position but not in its base position, e.g.
::a. *We talked about
that he was sick for days.
- Underlined clause is unacceptable before movement.
::b.
That he was sick, we talked about ___ for days.
- Example of topicalization
::a. *...but she did not
met me.
- Underlined verb phrase is unacceptable before movement
::b. ?...but
met me she did not ___.
- Example of topicalization
::a. *I
aren't your friend.
- Underlined copular verb is unacceptable before movement.
::b.
Aren't I ___ your friend?
- Example of inversion
These data are difficult to explain in an analysis based on movement, since it is not evident how the b-sentence can be grammatical each time if it is derived by a movement operation applied to the corresponding a-example. The first example illustrates a movement paradox involving a clausal complement of the preposition ''about'', the second a movement paradox involving competing forms of a
non-finite verb
A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs i ...
(''meet'' vs ''met''), and the third a movement paradox involving a contracted form of the
copula (''aren't''). To state the problem in other words, the movement analysis of the b-sentences has to explain the unexpected fact that the a-sentences are bad.
A fourth type of movement paradox
Movement paradoxes are present in other languages as well. The so-called ''long passive'' in German presents a movement paradox that revolves around competing case forms, e.g.
[The examples of the long passive here are similar to those discussed by Groß and Osborne (2009:56ff.).]
::
::
::
On the assumption that the noun phrase ''den Wagen'' is in its base position in the a-sentence, this noun phrase must be in a derived position in the other two sentences. The problem is evident in the competing case forms of the determiner (''den'' vs. ''der''). In the derived position at the front of the sentence, the determiner must appear in the nominative (''der'', not ''den''), whereas when this noun phrase appears in its base position, the accusative of the determiner must appear (''den'', not ''der''). The paradox is evident in the necessity that a change in case form accompany movement.
See also
*
Discontinuity
*
Movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
* {{cite book , last1=Webelhuth , first1=Gert , title=Principles and Parameters of Syntactic Saturation. , date=1992 , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=9780195361384
Generative linguistics
Syntactic transformation
Paradoxes