Overview

This highly original monograph treats movement operations within the Minimalist Program. Jairo Nunes argues that traces are not grammatical primitives and that their properties follow from deeper features of the system, and, in particular, that the phonetic realisation of traces is determined by linearisation computations coupled with economy conditions regarding deletion. He proposes a version of the copy theory of movement according to which movement must be construed as a description of the interaction of the independent operations Copy, Merge, Form Chain, and Chain Reduction. Empirical evidence to support this claim includes instances of ""sideward movement"" between subtrees in a derivation. According to this analysis, the linearisation of chains in the phonological component constrains sideward movement so that it is possible to account for standard properties of multiple gap constructions, including parasitic gap and ATB constructions, without construction-specific operations or principles that are not independently motivated. Theoretical linguists will find Linearization of Chains and Sideward Movement of great interest both theoretically and empirically.

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9780262640558

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Reviews

This book is a glorious example of high theory and its rich empirical implications. I consider it an example of syntactic analysis at its best. Every serious syntactician will have to read and react to this work. It is the most original and interesting work on syntax that I have read in recent years. - Norbert Hornstein, Professor of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park

Author Information

Jairo Nunes is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the State University of Campinas, Brazil.

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