Testing for Structure(103) a where did they find the gun (A = under the bishops mitre)
b how did the judge find the bishop (A= guilty!)
The fact that the answer to (103a) is a preposition phrase and that to (103b) is an
adjective phrase is an indication that these wh-elements are prepositional and
adjectival respectively.
Not every kind of phrase can be questioned in this way, however. For example,
there is no wh-element that corresponds to a VP, nor one for an NP. However the fact
remains that only constituents can undergo this movement and so it can act as a fairly
reliable test for the constituent structure of most parts of a sentence.
It is important to note that only one constituent can undergo any particular
movement and that two constituents cannot move together. To demonstrate this,
consider the following sentence:
(104) the bishop killed the bank manager with the gun
This sentence can be interpreted in one of two ways depending on who is seen as
having the gun. If it is the bank manager who has the gun, then the PP with the gun
acts as a modifier within the DP the bank manager with the gun. If, on the other hand,
the bishop has the gun, then the PP is interpreted as modifying the VP killed the bank
manager with the gun. In the first interpretation the PP is a kind of locative modifier,
locating the gun with the bank manager and in the second it is an instrumental modifier
saying what was used to kill the bank manager. The important point to note is that in
the first case the PP forms a single constituent with the DP, whereas in the second it is
a separate constituent from this. Thus we have the two structures:
(105) a S
DP VP
the bishop V DP
killed the bank manager with the gun
b S
DP VP
the bishop V DP PP
killed the bank manager with the gun
Suppose we topicalise the object in (105a), moving the DP to the front of the
clause. As the PP is part of the DP it will be carried along with the rest of it and we
will derive the following sentence:
(106) the bank manager with the gun, the bishop killed –