Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 7nominative case. Movement of DPs to Spec,IP to get nominative case is called DP
movement. DP movement is substitution as it targets an existing position, in this case,
Spec,IP. The initial structure is in (2a), while the derived structure is in (2b).
(2) a were stolen the diamonds yesterday
b The diamondsi were stolen ti yesterday
In sentence (1b) a yes–no question is under scrutiny. In yes–no questions in
English main clauses the auxiliary precedes the subject. The auxiliary is a head and its
base position is in I as is shown in the declarative version of the sentence in (3a). In
questions the auxiliary verb moves from I to C to mark C as interrogative, the way we
get the interrogative interpretation of the sentence as in (3b). The movement is head-
movement and it is substitution as the auxiliary moves to an existing position, to C,
which is empty before the movement of the auxiliary.
(3) a you will meet Mary in Paris
b willi you ti meet Mary in Paris
In sentence (1c) the verb read is an active transitive verb that has a theme
complement. In the initial position the theme argument must be in VP as theta role
assignment is performed by the main verb in a very local domain (within the
projection of the verb) as in (4a). But the theme DP moves to the front of the sentence
(4b). This movement is called Topicalisation and it is an adjunction operation as we
can have several topicalised constituents.
(4) a I never read Linguistic textbooks
b Linguistic textbooksi I never read ti
In sentence (1d) the negative marker is unified with the modal auxiliary in I. As is
seen in (5a) the canonical position for the negative head follows I, the D(eep)-structure
position of the modal auxiliary. In English negation can be adjoined to the auxiliary in
I as in (5b). This movement is adjunction as it is adjoined to a position that is already
filled with the modal auxiliary.
(5) a I will not trust you
b I won’ti ti trust you
Sentence (1e) is an interrogative sentence in which the theme argument of the verb like
is an interrogative pronoun. Interrogative pronouns in English tend to move to the
front of the sentence followed by the movement of the (first) auxiliary to C. As the
pronoun is the complement DP of the verb, in D-structure it has to be in VP (6a). But
being an interrogative pronoun it has to move to the most initial position in the
sentence (6b) to mark the sentence interrogative. This is a substitution operation as
interrogative pronouns move to an existing empty position (to Spec,CP). The
movement of the auxiliary backs up this movement from I to C in accordance with the
Structure Preserving Principle.