In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, wh-movement (also known as wh-fronting, wh-extraction, or wh-raising) is the formation of
syntactic
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 (constituency), ...
dependencies involving
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
words. An example in English is the dependency formed between ''what'' and the object position of ''doing'' in "What are you doing?" Interrogative forms are sometimes known within English linguistics as ''
wh-words
An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as ''what, which'', ''when'', ''where'', ''who, whom, whose'', ''why'', ''whether'' and ''how''. They are sometimes called wh-words, because in English most of ...
'', such as ''what, when, where, who'', and ''why'', but also include other interrogative words, such as ''how''. This dependency has been used as a diagnostic tool in syntactic studies as it can be observed to interact with other grammatical constraints.
In languages with wh-
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 ...
, sentences or clauses with a wh-word show a non-canonical word order that places the wh-word (or phrase containing the wh-word) at or near the front of the sentence or clause ("''Who'' are you thinking about?") instead of the canonical position later in the sentence ("I am thinking about ''you''"). Leaving the wh-word in its canonical position is called ''wh-in-situ'' and occurs in echo questions and
polar questions
Polar may refer to:
Geography
Polar may refer to:
* Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates
* Polar climate, the c ...
in informal speech.
Wh-movement is one of the most studied forms of
linguistic discontinuity. It is observed in many languages and plays a key role in the theories of long-distance dependencies.
The term ''wh-movement'' stemmed from early
generative grammar
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 ...
in the 1960s and 1970s and was a reference to the theory 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 ...
, in which the interrogative expression always appears in its canonical position in the
deep structure Deep structure and surface structure (also D-structure and S-structure although those abbreviated forms are sometimes used with distinct meanings) are concepts used in linguistics, specifically in the study of syntax in the Chomskyan tradition of t ...
of a sentence but can move leftward from that position to the front of the sentence/clause in the surface structure.
[For early accounts of question formation and ''wh''-movement, see, for instance, Ross (1967/86:18ff.), Bach (1974:129), Culicover (1976:73f.), Stockwell (1977:172f.), Baker (1978:121f.).] Although other theories of syntax do not use the mechanism of movement in the transformative sense, the term ''wh-movement'' (or equivalent terms, such as ''wh-fronting'', ''wh-extraction'', or ''wh-raising'') is widely used to denote the phenomenon, even in theories that do not model long-distance dependencies as a movement.
Basic examples
The following examples of sentence pairs illustrate wh-movement in main clauses in English: each (a) example has the canonical word order of a declarative sentence in English, while each (b) sentence has undergone wh-movement, whereby the wh-word has been fronted in order to form a direct question.
Wh-fronting of ''whom'', which corresponds to the direct object ''Tesnière''.
: (1a) ''Tom has been reading Tesnière''.
: (1b) ''Whom has Tom been reading?''
Wh-fronting of ''what'', which corresponds to the prepositional object ''syntax''.
: (2a) ''She should stop talking about syntax''.
: (2b) ''What should she stop talking about?''
Wh-fronting of ''when'', which corresponds to the temporal adjunct ''tomorrow''.
: (3a) ''They want to visit us tomorrow''.
: (3b) ''When do they want to visit us?''
Wh-fronting of ''what'', which corresponds to the predicative adjective
A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula (or linking verb), e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement of a certain type of ve ...
''happy''.
: (4a) She is happy.
: (4b) What is she?
Wh-fronting of ''where'', which corresponds to the prepositional phrase
An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or circ ...
''to school''.
: (5a) She is going to school.
: (5b) Where is she going?
Wh-fronting of ''how'', which corresponds to the adverb phrase
In linguistics, an ''adverbial phrase'' ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divi ...
''well''.
: (6a) They are doing well.
: (6b) How are they doing?
These examples illustrate that wh-movement occurs when a
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
is questioned that appears to the right of the
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
in the corresponding declarative sentence. The main clause remains in
V2 word order
In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent). ...
, with the interrogative fronted to first position while the finite verb stays in second position.
Do-support
''Do''-support (or ''do''-insertion), in English grammar, is the use of the auxiliary verb ''do'', including its inflected forms ''does'' and ''did'', to form negated clauses and questions as well as other constructions in which subject–auxili ...
is often needed to enable wh-fronting in such cases, which are reliant on
subject–auxiliary inversion
Subject–auxiliary inversion (SAI; also called subject–operator inversion) is a frequently occurring type of inversion in English, whereby a finite auxiliary verb – taken here to include finite forms of the copula ''be'' – appears to "inve ...
.
Subject "fronting"
When the subject is questioned, it is unclear whether wh-fronting has occurred because the default position of the subject is clause-initial. In the example sentence pair below, the subject ''Fred'' already appears at the front of the sentence where the interrogative is placed.
::a. Fred is working hard.
::b. Who is working hard?
Some theories of syntax maintain that this constitutes a wh-movement, and analyze such cases as if the interrogative subject has moved up the syntactic hierarchy; however, other theories observe that the surface string of words remains the same, and therefore, no movement has occurred.
Distance of movement
In many cases, wh-fronting can occur regardless of how far away its canonical location is, as seen in the following set of examples:
::a. Whom does Mary like __?
::b. Whom does Bob know that Mary likes __?
::c. Whom does Carl believe that Bob knows that Mary likes __?
The interrogative ''whom'' is the direct object of the verb ''like'' in each of these examples. The dependency relation between the canonical, empty position and the wh-expression appears to be unbounded, in the sense that there is no upper bound on how deeply embedded within the given sentence the empty position may appear.
Wh-expressions without wh-movement
Wh-movement typically occurs when forming questions in English. There are certain forms of questions in which wh-movement does not occur (aside from when the question word serves as the subject and so is already fronted):
#
Echo questions
An echo question is a question that seeks to confirm or clarify another speaker's utterance (the ''stimulus''), by repeating it back in some form. For example:
A: I'm moving to Greenland.
B: You're moving ''where''??
In English, echo questions ...
: Confirming what you thought you heard.
#*''You bought what?''
#Quiz questions or specific questions: Asking for detailed specific information.
#*''George Orwell was born in which country?''
#Multiple interrogatives in a single sentence.
#*''Who bought what?''
#Expected questions: Occur when new information is expected.
Other languages may leave wh-expressions ''in-situ'' (in base position) more often, such as Slavic languages.
In French, for instance, wh-movement is often optional in certain
matrix clauses. Mandarin and Russian also possess wh-expressions without obligatory wh-movement.
''In-situ'' questions are different from wh-fronted questions in that they result from no movement at all, which tends to be mophologically or pragmatically conditioned.
In subordinate clauses
The basic examples above demonstrate wh-movement in main clauses in order to form a direct question. Wh-movement can also occur in subordinate clauses, although its behavior in subordinate clauses differs in word order.
In indirect questions
In English, wh-movement occurs in subordinate clauses to form an indirect question. While wh-fronting occurs in both direct and indirect questions, there is a key word order difference, as illustrated with the following examples:
::a. Fred will ask Jill to leave.
::b. Whom will Fred ask to leave?
– Direct question
::c. I wonder whom Fred will ask to leave.
– Indirect question
::a. Sam likes to get news about hurricanes.
::b. What does Sam like to get news about?
– Direct question; do-support introduced
::c. They asked what Sam likes to get news about.
– Indirect question
::a. Larry stayed home due to the weather.
::b. Why did Larry stay home?
– Direct question; do-support introduced
::c. Nobody knows why Larry stayed home.
– Indirect question
In indirect questions, while the interrogative is still fronted to the first position of the clause, the subject is instead placed in second position, and the verb appears in third position, forming a V3 word order.
In relative clauses
Although many examples of wh-movement form questions, wh-movement also occurs in
relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s. Many relative pronouns in English have the same form as the corresponding interrogative words (''which'', ''who'', ''where'', etc.). Relative clauses are subordinate clauses, so the same V3 word order occurs.
::a. I read Fred's paper.
::b. Fred's paper, which I read
– Wh-fronting in relative clause
::a. John likes the governor.
::b. the governor whom John likes
– Wh-fronting in relative clause
::a. Fred reads the paper in the coffee shop.
::b. the coffee shop where Fred reads the paper
– Wh-fronting in relative clause
The relative pronouns have fronted in the subordinate clauses of the b. examples. The characteristic V3 word order is obligatory, just as in other subordinate clauses.
Pied-piping
Many instances of wh-fronting involve
pied-piping
In linguistics, pied-piping is a phenomenon of syntax whereby a given focused expression brings along an encompassing phrase with it when it is moved.
The term was introduced by John Robert Ross in 1967. It references the legend of the Pied Pipe ...
, where the word that is moved pulls an entire encompassing phrase to the front of the clause with it. Pied-piping was first identified by
John R. Ross
John Robert "Haj" Ross (born May 7, 1938) is an American poet and linguist. He played a part in the development of generative semantics (as opposed to interpretive semantics) along with George Lakoff, James D. McCawley, and Paul Postal. He wa ...
in his 1967 dissertation.
Obligatory pied-piping
In some cases of wh-fronting, pied-piping is obligatory, and the entire encompassing phrase must be fronted for the sentence to be grammatically correct. In the following examples, the moved phrase is underlined:
::a. Susan is reading
Fred's novel.
::b.
Whose novel is Susan reading?
– Pied-piping of ''novel''
::c. *
Whose is Susan reading
novel?
– Sentence is incorrect because pied-piping has not occurred
::a. The music is
very loud.
::b.
How loud is the music?
– Pied-piping of ''loud''
::c. *
How is the music
loud?
– Sentence is incorrect because pied-piping has not occurred
These examples illustrate that pied-piping is often necessary when the wh-word is inside a noun phrase or adjective phrase. Pied-piping is motivated in part by the barriers and islands to extraction (see below). When the wh-word appears underneath a blocking category or in an island, the entire encompassing phrase must be fronted.
Optional pied-piping
There are other cases where pied-piping is optional. In English, this occurs most notably when the fronted word is the object of a
prepositional phrase
An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or circ ...
. A formal register will pied-pipe the preposition, whereas more colloquial English prefers to leave the preposition ''in situ'':
::a. She revealed her secret
to Tom.
::b.
To whom did she reveal her secret?
– Pied-piping of preposition associated with a formal register
::c.
Whom did she reveal her secret
to?
– Pied-piping absent in colloquial English
::a. He is hiding
behind the red door.
::b.
Behind which door is he hiding?
– Pied-piping of preposition associated with a formal register
::c.
Which door is he hiding
behind?
– Pied-piping of preposition absent in colloquial English; pied-piping of noun ''door'' still obligatory
The c. examples are cases of
preposition stranding Historically, grammarians have described preposition stranding or p-stranding as the syntactic construction in which a so-called ''stranded'', ''hanging'' or ''dangling'' preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its corresponding o ...
, which is possible in colloquial English but not allowed in many languages that are related to English. For instance, preposition stranding is largely absent from many of the other Germanic languages, and it may be completely absent from the Romance languages.
Prescriptive
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
grammars often claim that preposition stranding should be avoided in English as well, although it may feel artificial or stilted to a native speaker to move the preposition.
Extraction islands
A ''syntactic island'' is a construction from which extracting an element leads to an ungrammatical or marginal sentence. For example:
:: *What did you wonder whether Lisa invented __?
These types of phrases, also referred to as ''extraction islands'' or simply ''islands'', do not allow wh-movement to occur. John R. Ross proposed and described four types of islands: Complex-Noun Phrase Constraints (CNPC), Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC), Left Branch Condition, and Sentential Subject Constraint. Configurations showing clear island restrictions have also been called wh-islands, complex noun phrases, and adjunct islands.
Adjunct islands
An ''adjunct island'' is a type of island formed from an
adjunct clause. Wh-movement is not possible from an adjunct clause. Adjunct clauses include clauses introduced by ''because'', ''if'', and ''when'', as well as
relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s. Instead, a question would be formed by keeping the interrogative ''in situ''. For example:
::a. You went home
because you needed to do that.
::b. *What did you go home because you needed to do __?
– The attempt to extract out of an adjunct clause fails
::c. You went home because you needed to do what?
::a. Alex likes the woman
who wears extravagant rings.
::b. *What does Alex like the woman who wears __?
– The attempt to extract out of an adjunct clause fails
::c. Alex like the woman who wears what?
Wh-islands
A ''wh-island'' is created by an embedded sentence that is introduced by a wh-word, creating a dependent clause. Wh-islands are weaker than adjunct islands, and violating them results in a sentence that at minimum sounds ungrammatical to a native speaker.
::a. John wonders
where Eric went to buy a gift.
::b. ??What does John wonder where Eric went to buy __?
– The attempt to extract out of a wh-island is at best strongly marginal
::a. Susan asked
why Sam was waiting for Fred.
::b. *Whom did Susan ask why Sam was waiting for __?
– The attempt to extract out of a wh-island fails
The b. sentences are strongly marginal or unacceptable because they attempt to extract an expression out of a wh-island. This occurs because both wh-words are part of a DP. It would not be possible to move the bottom wh-word to the top of the structure, as they would both interfere. In order to get a grammatical result, a proper wh-movement must occur. However, because the wh-word is taking up the Spec-C position, it is not possible to move the competing wh-word higher by skipping the higher DP as wh-movement is a cyclic process.
Subject islands
Although wh-extraction out of object clauses and phrases is common in English, wh-movement is not (or rarely) possible out of subject phrases, particularly subject clauses. For example:
::a.
That John went home is likely.
::b. *Who is that __ went home likely?
Wh-extraction out of a subject clause fails
::a.
The story about Susan was funny.
::b. ??Whom was the story about __ funny?
Wh-extraction out of subject phrase is strongly marginal
Left branch islands
A ''left branch island'' occurs where a modifier precedes the noun that it modifies. The modifier cannot be extracted, a constraint which Ross identified as the ''Left Branch Condition''. Possessive determiners and attributive adjectives form left branch islands. Fronting of these phrases necessitates pied-piping of the entire noun phrase, for example:
::a. Susan likes
Fred's account.
::b. *Whose does Susan like __ account?
– Attempt to extract from a left branch under a noun fails
::c.
Whose account does Susan like __?
– Extraction succeeds if the entire noun phrase is pied-piped
::a. He bought
an expensive boat.
::b. *How expensive did he buy a __ boat?
– Attempt to extract from a left branch under a noun fails
::c.
How expensive a boat did he buy?
– Extraction succeeds if the entire noun phrase is pied-piped
Extraction fails in the b. sentences because the extracted expression corresponds to a left-branch modifier of a noun.
While left branch islands exist in English, they are absent from many other languages, most notably from the Slavic languages.
Coordinate structure islands
In
coordination
Coordination may refer to:
* Coordination (linguistics), a compound grammatical construction
* Coordination complex, consisting of a central atom or ion and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions
* Coordination number or ligancy of a centr ...
, extraction out of a conjunct of a coordinate structure is possible only if this extraction affects all the conjuncts of the coordinate structure equally. The relevant constraint is known as the ''coordinate structure constraint''. Extraction must extract the same syntactic expression out of each of the conjuncts simultaneously. This sort of extraction is said to occur across the board (ATB-extraction), e.g.,
::a. Sam ate
eansand
''broccoli
::b. *What did Sam eat
eansand
_ – Extraction fails because it affects just one conjunct.
::a. Sam ate
''beansand
roccoli
::b. *What did Sam eat
_and
roccoli – Extraction fails because it affects just one conjunct.
::a. Sam
ave a guitar to meand
oaned a trumpet to you
::b. What did Sam
ive __ to meand
oan __ to you – Extraction succeeds because it occurs equally out of both conjuncts (ATB-extraction).
::a. He is
aiting for youand
rying to call you
::b. Whom is he
aiting for __and
rying to call __ – Extraction succeeds because it occurs equally out of both conjuncts (ATB-extraction).
Wh-extraction out of a conjunct of a coordinate structure is only possible if it can be interpreted as occurring equally out all the conjuncts simultaneously, that is, if it occurs across the board.
Complex noun phrase islands
Extraction is difficult from out of a noun phrase. The relevant constraint is known as the ''complex NP constraint'', and comes in two varieties, the first banning extraction from the clausal complement of a noun, and the second banning extraction from a relative clause modifying a noun:
Sentential complement to a noun:
::a. You heard
the claim that Fred solved the second problem.
::b. ??What did you hear the claim that Fred solved __?
– Attempt to extract out of a complex NP fails.
::a. She likes
the possibility that she might get a new phone for X-mas.
::b. ??What does she like the possibility that she might get __ for X-mas?
– Attempt to extract out of a complex NP fails.
Relative clause:
::a. They hired
someone who speaks a Balkan language.
::b. *What Balkan language did they hire someone who speaks __?
Non-bridge-verb islands
Extraction out of object ''that''-clauses serving as complements to verbs may show island-like behavior if the matrix verb is a nonbridge verb (Erteschik-Shir 1973). Nonbridge verbs include manner-of-speaking verbs, such as ''whisper'' or ''shout'', e.g.,
::a. She thinks that he died in his sleep.
::b. How does she think that he died __?
– Extraction out of object clause easily possible with matrix bridge verb.
::a. She whispered that he had died in his sleep.
::b. *How did she whisper that he had died __?
– Extraction across a non-bridge verb is impossible.
Wh-movement in syntax trees
Syntax trees are visual breakdowns of sentences that include dominating heads for every segment (word/constituent) in the tree itself. In the wh-movement, there are additional segments that are added: EPP (
extended projection principle The extended projection principle (EPP) is a linguistic hypothesis about subjects. It was proposed by Noam Chomsky as an addendum to the projection principle. The basic idea of the EPP is that clauses must contain a noun phrase or determiner phra ...
) and the Question Feature
Qthat represents a ''question'' sentence.
The wh-movement is motivated by a Question Feature/EPP at C (Complementizer), which promotes movement of a wh-word from the canonical base position to Spec-C. This movement could be considered as ''"Copy + Paste + Delete"'' movement as we are copying the interrogative word from the bottom, pasting it to Spec-C, and then deleting it from the bottom so that it solely remains at the top (now taking the position of Spec-C). Overall, the highest C will be the target position of the wh-raising.
The interrogatives that are used in the wh-movement do not all share headedness. This is important to consider when making the syntax trees, as there are three different heads that may be used.
Headedness
Determiner Phrase (DP): Who, What
Prepositional Phrase (PP): Where, When, Why
Adverb Phrase (AdvP): How
When creating the Syntax Tree for the wh-movement, consider the subject-aux inversion in the word that was raised from T (Tense) to C (Complementizer).
File:WH-trace.png
The location of the EPP (Extended Projection Principle):
The EPP allows movement of the wh-word from the bottom canonical position of the syntax tree to Spec-C. The EPP is a great indicator when it comes to distinguishing between in-situ trees and ex-situ. ''Ex-situ'' trees allow the movement to Spec-C, while ''in-situ'' do not as the head C lacks the EPP feature.
Islands in syntax trees
Within syntax trees, islands do not allow movement to occur; if movement is attempted, the sentence would then be perceived as ungrammatical to the native speaker of the observed language. Islands are typically noted as being a boxed node on the tree. The movement in the wh-Island syntax tree is unable to occur because in order to move out of an embedded clause, a Determiner Phrase (DP) must move through the Spec-C position. This cannot occur, as the Determiner Phrase (DP) is already occupied.
For example, in "She said
ho bought what" we see that "who" takes the place of DP and restricts "what" from rising up to the respected Spec-C. Native speakers may confirm this as well as it will sound ungrammatical: * "What did she say
ought what?.
Multiple wh-questions
In languages, a sentence can contain more than one wh-question. These interrogative constructions are called ''multiple'' wh''-questions,''
e.g.: Who ate what at the restaurant?
In the following English example, a strikeout-line and trace-movement coindexation symbols—
''i'' ... who ''ti'' ...">''Who''i'' ... who ''ti'' ...€”are used to indicate the underlying raising-movement of the closest wh-phrase. This movement produces an overt sentence word order with one fronted wh-question:
e.g.:
''i'' did you help who ''ti'' make what?">''Who''i'' did you help who ''ti'' make what?* in the underlying (deep) syntax structure of this sentence,
''whois positioned directly after the transitive verb
'help''because the VP selects a direct object DP as its complement
*the closest wh-phrase
'who''is raised from its canonical position to Spec-CP, which produces sentence word order with a wh-question word at the beginning of the sentence
*the farther away wh-phrase
'what'' is kept in-situ
In the underlying syntax, the wh-phrase closest to Spec-CP is raised to satisfy selectional properties of the CP: the
Qand
Wh-EPPfeature requirements of C. The wh-phrase farther away from Spec-CP stays in its base position (in-situ).
Superiority condition
The ''superiority condition'' determines which wh-phrase moves in a clause that contains multiple wh-phrases.
This is the outcome of applying the ''Attract Closest'' principle, where only the closest candidate is eligible for movement to the attracting
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
that selects for it.
If the farther wh-phrase moves instead of the preceding wh-phrase, an ungrammatical structure is created (in English). Not all languages have instances of multiple wh-movement governed by the superiority condition, most have variations. There is no uniformity found across languages concerning the superiority condition.
For example, see the following English phrases:
: a.
i did you ask whoti to buy what?">''Whoi did you ask whoti to buy what?: b. *
i did you ask who to buy whatti?">''Whati did you ask who to buy whatti?
The subscript "ti" or "i" are used to mark coreference. "t" represents a
trace
Trace may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Trace (Son Volt album), ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995
* Trace (Died Pretty album), ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993
* Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band
* The Trace (album), ''The ...
, while both "ti" and "i" represent that the words refer to each other and the same entity.
In a., the closer wh-phrase
''whomoves up toward Spec-CP from being the subject of the VP
''who to buy what The second wh-phrase
''whatremains in-situ (as the direct object of the VP
ho to buy what. This is to satisfy the
Q Wh
Q, or q, is the seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is pronounced , most commonly spelled ''cue'', but ...
feature in the Spec-CP.
In b., the farther wh-phrase
''whathas incorrectly moved from the direct object position of the VP
what">ho to buy whatinto the Spec-CP position while the closer wh-phrase to Spec-CP
''whohas remained in-situ as the subject of the VP
who to buy what">''who to buy what Thus, this sentence contains a violation of ''Attract Closest'' and is therefore ungrammatical, as marked by the asterisk (*).
German
German does not show the expected effects of the superiority condition during clauses with multiple wh-phrases. German appears to have a process that allows the farther wh-phrase to "cross over" the closer wh-phrase and move, not remaining in-situ.
This movement is tolerated and has less consequences than when compared with English.
For example, see the following German phrases:
In a., the gloss shows that the wh-phrase
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
has "crossed over" wh-phrase
hoand is now in Spec-CP to satisfy the
Q Wh
Q, or q, is the seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is pronounced , most commonly spelled ''cue'', but ...
feature. This movement is a violation of the attract closest principle, which is what the superiority condition is based upon.
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
is a wh-
in-situ language, which means that it does not exhibit wh-movement in
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
questions. In other words, wh-words in Mandarin remain in their original position in their clause, contrasting with wh-movement in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
where the wh-word would move in constituent questions.
In-situ
The following example illustrates multiple wh-movement in Mandarin, and is written in
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
for the sake of simplicity and clarity:
This example demonstrates that the wh-word "what" in Mandarin remains in-situ at
Surface structure, while the wh-word "why" in Mandarin moves to proper scope position and, in doing so,
c-command
In generative grammar and related frameworks, a node in a parse tree c-commands its sister node and all of its sister's descendants. In these frameworks, c-command plays a central role in defining and constraining operations such as syntactic mov ...
s the wh-word that stays in-situ.
Matrix scope
The scope of wh-questions in Mandarin is also subject to other conditions depending on the kind of wh-phrase involved. The following example can translate into two meanings:
This example illustrates the way certain wh-words such as "who" and "what" can freely obtain matrix scope in Mandarin.
Attract Closest
In reference to the ''Attract Closest'' principle, where the head adopts the closest candidate available to it, the overt wh-phrase in Mandarin moves to proper scope position while the other wh-phrase stays in-situ as it is c-commanded by the wh-phrase first mentioned. This can be seen in the following example, where the word for "what" stays in-situ since it is c-commanded by the phrase in Mandarin meaning "at where":
As these examples show, Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, exhibits no movement of wh-phrases at Surface structure, is subject to other conditions based on the type of wh-phrase involved in the question, and adheres to the Attract Closest principle.
Bulgarian
ln
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
, the
whfeature of C motivates multiple wh-word movements, which leads to multiple specifiers. It requires formation of clusters of wh-phrases in
pec-CPin the matrix clause. This is different from
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
because in English, only one wh-word moves to
pec-CPwhen there are multiple wh-words in a clause. This is because, in Bulgarian, unlike English, all movements of wh-elements take place in the syntax, where movement is shown overtly. The phrase structure for wh-words in Bulgarian would look like is shown in Figure 1 below, where a wh-cluster is formed under
pec-CP
![Wh-Bulgarian](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Wh-Bulgarian.png)
In Bulgarian and Romanian, a wh-element is attracted into
pec-CPand the other wh-elements are adjoined into the first wh-word in
pec-CP
In Example 1, we see that both the wh-words underwent movement and are in a
pec-CPcluster.
Attract Closest
The ''Attract Closest'' is a principle of the Superiority Condition where the head which attracts a certain feature adopts the closest candidate available to it. This usually leads to the movement of the closest candidate.
Slavic languages are grouped into two different
S-structure Deep structure and surface structure (also D-structure and S-structure although those abbreviated forms are sometimes used with distinct meanings) are concepts used in linguistics, specifically in the study of syntax in the Chomskyan tradition of ...
s concerning the movement of wh-elements at
pec-CP(Rudin, 1998). One group includes the languages
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, and
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
*Czech, ...
where there is only one wh-element in
pec-CPat S-structure. The other group contains
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
, which has all of its wh-elements in
pec-CPat S-structure. In the first group mentioned, the ''Attract Closest'' principle is present, and the wh-word that is closest to the attracting head undergoes movement while the rest of the wh-elements remain in-situ''.'' The second group of languages, the ''Attract Closest'' principle occurs in a slightly different way. The order of the way the wh-word moves is dictated by their proximity to
pec-CP The closest wh-word to the attracting head undergoes movement first and the next closest one follows suit, and on and on. In that way, the Superiority effect is present in Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Czech in the first wh-element, while, in Bulgarian, it is present in all of the wh-elements in the clause.
The ''Attract Closest'' principle explains a crucial detail about which wh-words move first in the tree. Since the closest wh-word is moved first, there is a particular order that appears. Wh-subjects go before wh-objects and wh-adjuncts (Grewendorf, 2001). This is seen in Example #2 and Example #3. Example #3 also shows that there can be more than two wh-words in
pec-CPand that, no matter how many wh-words are in the clause, they would all have to undergo movement.
In-situ
In Bulgarian, we see in Example #4 that to defer from forming a sequence of the same wh-words, a wh-element is allowed to remain
in-situ as a last resort (Bošković, 2002).
In summary, Bulgarian has multiple wh-movement in the syntax and the wh-words move overtly. We also see that while all wh-words in a clause move under
pec-CPbecause of the
whfeature, there is still a certain order in how they appear in the clause.
French
In French, multiple wh-questions have the following patterns:
a) In some French interrogative sentences,
wh-movement can be optional.
1.The closest wh-phrase to Spec-CP can be fronted (i.e., moved to Spec-CP from its covert base position in deep structure to its overt phonological form in surface-structure word order);
2. Alternatively, wh-phrases can remain in-situ''.''
In the example sentences above, examples #1 and #2 are both grammatical and share the same meaning in French. Here, the choice of using one form of question over the other is optional; either sentence can be used to ask about the two particular DP constituents expressed by two wh-words.
In French, the second sentence could also be used as an ''
echo question''. ' By contrast, in English, the grammatical structure of the second sentence is only acceptable as an ''echo question'': a question we ask to clarify the information we hear (or mishear) in someone's utterance, or that we use to express our shock or disbelief in reaction to a statement made by someone.
For echo questions in English, it is typical for speakers to emphasize the wh-words prosodically by using rising intonation (e.g.,''You sent WHAT to WHO?''). These special instances of using multiple wh-questions in English are essentially "requests for the repetition of that utterance".
b) In other French interrogative sentences,
wh-movement is required.
The option of using wh-in-situ in French sentences with multiple wh-questions is limited to specific conditions. There exists "a very limited distribution" of its usage.
French wh-in-situ can occur only:
# in matrix clauses (aka main clauses)
# in matrix clauses that do not have an overt complementizer (i.e., complementizer is 'phonologically null')
# in 'short-distance' questions (i.e., wh-movement not blocked by a
wh''-''island constraint)
Wh-in-situ usage is not allowed in French when these criteria are not met.
Wh-in-situ is ''not'' allowed:
# in embedded questions
2. in questions with overt complementizers
3. in 'long-distance' questions
To summarize, in French sentences with multiple wh-questions, the choice between wh-movement and wh-in-situ is not arbitrary; it is constrained by specific conditions.
In other languages
Wh-movement is also found in many other languages around the world. Most
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...
also place wh-words at the beginning of a clause. Furthermore, many of the facts illustrated above are also valid for other languages. The systematic difference in word order across main wh-clauses and subordinate wh-clauses shows up in other languages in varying forms. The islands to wh-extraction are also present in other languages, but there will be some variation. The following example illustrates wh-movement of an object in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
:
The following examples illustrate wh-movement of an object in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
:
The following examples illustrate wh-movement of an object in
French:
All the examples are quite similar to the English examples and demonstrate that wh-movement is a general phenomenon in numerous languages. As stated, however, the behaviour of wh-movement can vary, depending on the individual language in question.
Languages in which it is not present
Many languages do not have wh-movement. Instead, these languages keep the symmetry of the question and answer sentences.
For example, topic
questions in Chinese have the same sentence structure as their answers:
The response to which could be:
Chinese has a wh-particle, no wh-movement.
Theoretical approaches
Wh-movement typically results in a
discontinuity: the "moved" constituent ends up in a position that is separated from its canonical position by material that syntactically dominates the canonical position, which means there seems to be a ''discontinuous constituent'' and a ''long distance dependency'' present. Such discontinuities challenge any theory of syntax, and any theory of syntax is going to have a component that can address these discontinuities. In this regard, theories of syntax tend to explain discontinuities in one of two ways, either via ''
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 ...
'' or via ''feature passing''. The EPP feature (
extended projection principle The extended projection principle (EPP) is a linguistic hypothesis about subjects. It was proposed by Noam Chomsky as an addendum to the projection principle. The basic idea of the EPP is that clauses must contain a noun phrase or determiner phra ...
) and Question Feature play a large role in the movement itself. We have noticed that these two features occur in ex-situ questions which allow movement and do not exist in in-situ questions that do allow it.
Theories that posit movement have a long and established tradition that reaches back to early Generative Grammar (1960s and 1970s). They assume that the displaced constituent (e.g., the wh-expression) is first generated in its canonical position at some level or point in the structure generating process below the surface. This expression is then moved or copied out of this base position and placed in its surface position where it actually appears in speech.
[For an example of the movement/copying approach, see Radford (2004:153ff.).] Movement is indicated in tree structures using one of a variety of means (e.g., a trace ''t'', movement arrows, strikeouts, lighter font shade, etc.).
The alternative to the movement approach to wh-movement and discontinuities in general is feature passing. This approach rejects the notion that movement in any sense has occurred. The wh-expression is base generated in its surface position, and instead of movement, information passing (i.e., feature passing) occurs up or down the syntactic hierarchy to and from the position of the gap.
See also
*
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 Tesnià ...
*
Discontinuity
*
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 ...
*
Phrase structure grammar
The term phrase structure grammar was originally introduced by Noam Chomsky as the term for grammar studied previously by Emil Post and Axel Thue (Post canonical systems). Some authors, however, reserve the term for more restricted grammars in the ...
*
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 “scramb ...
*
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 ...
*
V2 word order
In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent). ...
Notes
References
*Bach, E. 1974. Syntactic theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
*Baker, C. 1978. Introduction to generative-transformational syntax. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
*Borsley, R. 1999. Syntactic theory: A unified approach. London: Arnold.
*Bošković 2002. On multiple wh-fronting. Linguistic Inquiry 33, 351–384.
*Carnie, A. (2013
Syntax: A generative introduction Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
*Chomsky, N. 1977. On wh-movement. In Culicover, P. W., Wasow, Thomas, and Akmajian, Adrian (eds), ''Formal Syntax'', New York.
*Costa, J et al. 2016. The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics. (2016). The Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics, pp. 288–302.
*Culicover, P. 1976. Syntax. New York: Academic Press.
*
*Erteschik-Shir, N. 1973. On the nature of island constraints. Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
*Groß, T. and T. Osborne 2009. Toward a practical dependency grammar theory of discontinuities. SKY Journal of Linguistics 22, 43–90.
*Jurafsky, D. and J. Martin. 2008. Speech and language processing: An introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and speech recognition. Delhi, India: Pearson Education.
*Grosu, A. 1973. On the Left Branch Condition. Linguistic Inquiry.
*O'Grady, W. 2005. Syntactic carpentry: An emergentist approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
*Parra-Guinaldo, V. 2013. A generativist approach to renewal in the left periphery: The reanalysis of 'whether'. Saarbrücken: Lambert.
*
Radford, A. 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
*Riemsdijk, H. van and E. Williams. 1986. Introduction to the theory of grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
*Roberts, I. 1997. Comparative syntax. London: Arnold.
*Ross, J. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
*Ross, J. 1986. Infinite syntax. (Originally presented as the author's thesis from 1967). Norwood, NJ: Infinite syntax!
*Stockwell, R. 1977. Foundations of syntactic theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
*Tallerman, M. 2005. Understanding syntax. 2nd edition. Malta: Hodder Arnold.
*Williams, E. 1978. Across the board rule application. Linguistic Inquiry 9, 31–43.
External links
Lexicon of Linguistics:Wh-movementLexicon of Linguistics:Pied pipingLexicon of Linguistics:IslandLexicon of Linguistics:Wh-islandLexicon of Linguistics:Left Branch ConditionLexicon of Linguistics:Wh-in-situStanford Linguistics 222B: Foundations of Syntactic Theory II Filler-Gap Dependencies (Unbounded Dependency Constructions)has a good archive of essential papers in the field
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wh-Movement
Syntactic relationships
Generative syntax
Syntax
Syntactic transformation
Word order
Interrogative words and phrases