Why improper movement leads to ungrammaticality?: A proposal from functionalism
Shin'ya Uchishiba
July 2024 

This squib discusses improper movement, a phenomenon hitherto disputable in generative grammar. Through the squib, we will find that the reason for the ungrammaticality of sentences involving this sort of movement is functional rather than syntactic. An important cue for this finding comes from phenomena akin to improper movement, which we term pseudo-improper movement. It is demonstrated that a functional perspective provides us with a straightforward explanation for the ungrammaticality due to pseudo-improper movement. This in turn suggests that the ungrammaticality due to normal improper movement should also fall under that perspective. This squib aims to offer an opportunity to let the formalism (such as generative grammar) and the functionalism work hand in hand to expand the range of explainable phenomena, but not to criticize the state of the art of the former camp of linguistic approach.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008294 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	unpublished manuscript
keywords:	improper movement, pseudo-improper movement, formalism, functionalism, generative grammar, free-merge, syntax
Downloaded:	217 times

 

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