Lecture 17 ~
Wh
-Movement and Islands
Syntax I ~ 330 4.29.09 Keir Moulton
1. Re-cap
Wh-words have a [wh] feature in English that allows them to move to the specifier of CP when that CP has the features [wh].
Wh-words, when they are DPs, still need case – so wh-words will often move from their theta-role position to a case assigning position and then to the specifier of a question CP.
Draw tree:
(1) Who was taken to jail?
The DP who has the features [wh] and [acc] that need checking. It also needs a theta-role.
A general principle on the sequence of movement positions:
Theta-role assignment position > case-checking position > wh-checking position.
2. Embedded questions
Some wh-words don’t move all the way up to the front of the sentence. Certain verbs subcateogrize for embedded questions:
(2) a. John asked who Bill saw. b. I wondered what he has done.
One problem: no T-C movement in embedded questions.1
(3) a. ?*John asked who did Bill see. b. *?I wondered what has he done.
Solution: the embedded C just has the [wh] feature (presumably, the meaning of wonder and ask
determines the “Questions” part. N.B.: Carnie gives these the features [+wh][-Q]. I will assume that there are no “minus” features – the featre just isn’t there in these cases. Draw tree:
1This is grammatical if there is a pause after ask and wonder and the embedded clause is direct speech report of
3. Island Phenomena
In many cases, wh-Movement is “unbounded”, i.e. a wh-phrase can move “unboundedly” far from the position where it gets its theta-role.
(4) a. Who1 does Magnus like t1?
b. Who1 did Loida think that Magnus liked t1?
c. Who1 did Agustin believe that Loida thought that Magnus liked t1?
d. … ……
Draw trees for long-distance wh-movement sentences above. (Think and believe do not have embedded question complements, but we might want to say that wh word still passes through it – for reasons we might see soon.)
However, it is not always possible to move a wh-phrase from one location to another. Configurations from which movement is not possible out of are called islands.
3.1 Adjunct Islands
An important class of island consists of adjunct clauses. Adjunct clauses are very robust islands and do not allow any kind of expression to be extracted (i.e. moved) out of them.
Extraction out of Adjunct Clauses:
(5) because clauses
a. John is unhappy because Sally likes Molly. b. *Who1 is John unhappy because Sally likes t1 ?
(6) when clauses
a. John is unhappy when Sally hits Molly. b. *Who1 is John unhappy when Sally hits t1?
(7) if clauses
a. John will be unhappy if Sally hits Molly. b. *Who1 will John be unhappy if Sally hits t1?
(8) Relative clauses
a. Rhoda likes the artist who painted that picture.
3.2 Complex DP Islands
The term Complex DP refers to DPs that contain nouns with a complement CP. (9)a involves a Complex DP, while (9)b does not.
(9) a. [DP The [NP [N’ claim [CP that Bill is insane]]. Complex DP (CP is complement)
b. [DP The [NP [N’ claim] [CP that Bill made]]. Relative clause (CP is adjunct)
Complex DPs are islands (we’ve already seen that adjuncts are islands, so the relative clauses prevent wh-movement out of them for that reason)
(10) a. Olafur believes [the claim [that Bjork composed Hyperballad]]. b. *What1 does Olafur believe [the claim [that Bjork composed t1 ]]?
c. Olafur believes [that Bjork composed Hyperballad]. d. What1 does Olafur believe [that Bjork composed t1 ]?
So it’s the presence of the NP and DP that “blocks” the wh-movement. We know this because (10)d is good, and the only thing that is different between (10)d and (10)b is the presence of a DP and NP.
(11) The complex DP constraint
*wh1 … [DP … [CP …ti…] …]
(i.e. don’t move a wh-word from inside a CP that is inside a DP)
3.3 Coordinate Structure Constraint
You also cannot move out of one part of a conjunction structure.
(12) a. I liked Mary and John.
b. *Who1 do you like t1 and John?
c. *Who1 do you like Mary and t1?
You can’t even move from within one part of a conjunction:
(13) a. I [VP ate some popcorn] and [VP drank some soda]
b. *What1 did you [VP eat t1] and [VP drink some soda]?
c. *What1 did you [VP eat some popcorn] and [VP drink t1 ]?
(You’re probably thinking about the following sentence: (14) What did you eat and drink?
What1 did you eat t1 and drink t1
(15) The Coordinate Structure constraint
*wh1 [ … [XP …t1…] and [XP ……] …] (order of the two XPs irrelevant)
(i.e. don’t move a wh-word out of only one conjunct and not the other.)
see Carnie p336 for a more extensive list (his (52)) of coordinate structure configurations.
3.4 Subject Islands
You can actually move a wh-phrase from inside a DP, as long as certain conditions on that DP are met (it must be indefinite or some such thing)
(16) a. Who1 did John read a book about t1.
b. Who1 did John see a picture of t1
But when the DP out of which you move the wh-phrase is a subject, the result is ungrammatical:
(17) a. *Who1 did John say [a book about t1 ] was on the shelf.
b. *Who1 did John argue that [a picture of t1 ] would cost most.
Compare to the non question versions, which are fine:
(18) a. John said a book about someone was on the shelf. Yeah, who? b. John argued that a picture of someone from France would cost most.
3.5 Wh-islands
Another class of island is exemplified by the “wh-islands” shown below: they are called wh -islands because there is a wh-word at the edge of the clause that some other wh-word is trying to move out of.
These islands are “weak” in that extraction of arguments seems to only cause degradation and not always out-right ungrammaticality.
(19) a. I wonder [whether to invite Preston].
b. ?Who1 do you wonder [whether to invite t1 ]?
c. Mary wonders whether Will invited Preston.
d. ?? Who1 does Mary wonder [whether Will invited t1?]
c. Tina is wondering [what Lisa gave to Mona for Xmas].
d. ???/*Who1 is Tina wondering [what Tom gave to t1 for Xmas]?
As we have seen above you can move wh-words out of embedded clauses:
(21) Who1 do you think that Fred saw t1?
And you can also have two wh-words in a sentence (so that’s not the problem):
(22) I wonder who bought what.
And you can even leave one wh-word in place (“in situ”) and move another one:
(23) When1 do you think that Fred saw who t1 ?
(when is a wh-word modifying the time of the embedded clause event of Fred
seeing someone)
But!!! you just can’t move two wh-words!
(24) *[CP What1 do you wonder [CP who2 [ t2 bought t1 ]]?
(25) *[CP Who2 do you wonder [CP what1 [ t2 bought t1 ]]?
The existence of wh-islands can be related to the fact that deriving these involves skipping an already filled [Spec,CP]2 position.
(26) The Wh-Island constraint
*wh1 [ … [CP wh2 […t1…] …]…]
(i.e. don’t move a wh-word and skip around a CP that has another wh-word in its specifier)
Actually, the following shows that leaving one wh-word in place (“in situ”) and moving the other one isn’t always good either:
(27) *Do you wonder [CP what1 [who bought t1]]?
So there is really something about moving one wh-word over another. We have seen something like this before!! Do you remember where?
4. Move Closest!
(I am going to do this a little differently from the book. In the text, there is a principle called THE
MINIMAL LINK CONDITION…what I say here is very similar, but I hope it’s clearer. In particular
what I tell you will cover the cases below).
We saw that moving one wh-word over another is bad (at least in English):
(28) a. Who ate what? wh1 …. t1 … wh2.
b. *What did who eat? *wh1 …who2 … t1
(29) a. Who1 does John think t1 saw what?
b. *What2 does John think who saw t2?
(30) MOVE CLOSEST
If a wh-phrase moves to Spec, CP it cannot skip another wh-phrase i.e. Don’t skip wh-phrases!
(31) MOVE CLOSEST: formal version:
A wh-phrase Y can move to the specifier of a CP if and only if: (i) C c-commands Y
(ii) There is no other wh-phrase, X, such that C c-commands X and X c-commands Y.
Draw Abstract tree:
Why so complicated? Look at the following:
(32) What1 did the woman that wondered who bought what buy t1 herself at the store?
Draw tree: notice that the who and what after wonder do not c-command the What that is undergoing movement.
More Issues in Wh-Movement
You can’t seem to keep on going with a wh-word in some cases:
(33) a. *Who1 do you wonder t1 bought this?
b. Who1 do you think t1 bought this?
(34) FEATURE CHECKING PRINCIPLE (my addition)
Once a feature is checked it can no longer move for the purposes of checking that feature.
Draw trees for these sentences.
Can we rule out both of these sentences with the tools we already have?
(35) *[CP What1 do you wonder [CP who2 [ t2 bought t1 ]]?
