Chapter 3 - Basic Concepts of Syntactic Theoryempty it is possible for the moved subject to move into each one in turn, moving from
one clause to the next each time:
(110) a [e] seems [[e] to be believed [[e] to be unlikely [Stan to steal diamonds]]]
b Stan 1 seems [t 1 to be believed [t 1 to be unlikely [t 1 to steal diamonds]]]
If there is a subject in one of these positions the moving subject would be forced to
make a longer movement and if long movements are not allowed, we predict the result
to be ungrammatical, which it is:
(111) a [e] is unusual [for Eric to hope [Stan to steal diamonds]]
b Stan 1 is unusual [for Eric to hope [t 1 to steal diamonds]]
We call this phenomenon, the boundedness of movement. For now it is enough to
note that movement is bounded. We will look in more detail at the phenomenon in a
subsequent chapter.
3 Conclusion
In this chapter we have briefly set down many of the theoretical mechanisms which we
will be using in the rest of the book to describe syntactic phenomena in English. There
is a lot more to say on theoretical issues and many differences of opinion as to how
they should be formulated. However, as it is not our intention to teach all the details of
the theory, but merely to use it, we will not go into these issues and the interested
reader is directed to other text books, such as Haegeman (1994), Webelhuth (1995) or
Radford (2004) for more detailed discussion on theoretical issues.
Check Questions
1 Discuss rewrite rules: use the terms ‘category variables’, ‘head’, ‘complement’,
‘specifier’, ‘adjunct’, ‘recursion’, ‘category neutral’.
2 Exemplify adjunction (i) to a head, (ii) to a bar-level projection, (iii) to a
maximal projection, and state the corresponding rewrite rule.
3 Explain the notion ‘projection’ and the way heads project their properties using
expressions like ‘zero-level projection’, ‘bar-level constituent’, ‘maximal projection’.
4 What is the difference between endocentric versus exocentric phrases?
5 Which of the following properties of heads and/or phrases are predictable?
a endocentricity
b category
c argument structure
d subcategorisation frame
e pronunciation
f meaning