Note that whenever a movement occurs, there is a trace left behind. In (3b), we actually see two types of movement to form the question Who does Kevin like: we have wh-movement, moving the direct object NP who to the spec CP position, as well as do-insertion and subsequent inversion so that does appears in the C position. In (3a), we see that the movement that has occurred from the subject NP to the spec CP position is the same as in (2). In (2), the entire NP has moved to the spec CP position, leaving behind a trace.įor the questions about the sentence Kevin likes Jen, we once again have two instances of wh-movement, although in these cases, the NP that is moving is occuring in two different locations: In this case, the following movement occurs from the deep structure shown in (1a): Also, since there is a “ wh-word”, we know that there has to be movement. We know this because there is a +Q feature that needs to be satisfied. In the instance of Who laughs, we have a case of wh-movement, although there isn’t an obvious change in word order. The third is V to I movement, which is covered in your book, and since we are covering the basics primarily for English here, we will not be discussing. wh-movement) and I to C movement (i.e Inversion). There are three types of movement in questions, and only two relevant for English: NP to spec CP movement (i.e. This is because, as noted, movement occurs in who laughs so that the +Q feature of C is satisfied. This is because while in the Deep Structure, they are very similar, the NP appears in different positions in the surface structure of the two. The similarity of the sentence Alice laughs with Who laughs can be a bit deceptive when it comes to the surface structure. Now all that is left is to show the movement. The deep structure is assumed to have the same structure as the corresponding answers would have, except that there should be a +Q feature occuring in the C of the Questions, and different constituents will be headed by question words. So what about the other questions described above? The same principle applies. This hints to us that (1a) will show movement in it’s surface structure, while the constituents in (1b) will remain in their original positions. The only difference structure-wise is that there is a +Q feature in the C position of (1a), and not in (1b). Note the close similarity between (1a) and (1b). So we would assume that the deep structure starts out like in (1a) below: So let’s begin with a simple question like Who laughs?Īs we can see from above, we would expect the answer to have been something like Alice laughs. On that transition to the surface structure, because each of these sentences has a +Q feature in the head of the overall CP, movement must occur to satisfy it, hence the different questions. In syntax, we assume that every question starts out the same way that a sentence does in the Deep Structure (except for a feature on C), but that movement occurs when it transitions to Surface Structure. Picard should punch Riker with his fist.Īs you can see from the above examples, multiple questions can be made from the same assumed Deep Structure, all that is changing is what movement is occurring on its way to the Surface Structure. Picard should punch Riker in the face.ĥ) a. When you first encounter a question, first think about what the complete answer would be (in a “Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar” game way).įor example, below is a list of example questions and full sentence responses: QuestionĤ) a. Now that you have learned how to deal with basic X-bar structure and drawing sentence syntax trees, you can easily learn how to deal with questions, and other forms of movement (i.e.
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