Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 7

Exercise 4

(1) a WH-movement

The verb live when used in the sense of 'reside' is an unaccusative verb so in this case

it would not have an agentive vP above it which introduces the subject. The subject in

this sentence has the theta role of theme, so it is base-generated in the specifier

position of VP. The vP above VP hosts the tense morpheme -s that the lexical verb

picks up on its way to C. As discussed in the text movement of the lexical verb to C is

possible as long as it appears after the subject, and this is exactly the case in subject

questions. So the verb moves from V to v first, then to I, then to C. The movement of

the verb is somewhat simplified in the tree, the structure gets more and more complex

with each step of movement.

CP

DP C'

Who 1 C IP

lives 2 t 1 I'

I vP

t 2 v'

v VP

t 2 DP V'

t 1 V PP

t 2 P'

P DP

in London