The copy theory of movement

Based on previous work by Bošković (2001, 2002, 2004a,b) and Nunes (1999, 2004), this chapter discusses a considerable amount of evidence involving A-movement, A'-movement, head movement, and remnant movement that points to the conclusion that “traces” (i.e. copies structurally lower in the syntactic representation) may be phonetically realized. In addition, the issues regarding phonetic realization of copies are shown to be determined by conditions of the phonological component and not of syntax (movement) per se. As a result, the chapter is able to explain a variety of complex phenomena that cannot be captured by trace theory. The chapter starts by reviewing several pieces of evidence that show that the phonetic realization of copies is similar to the LF interpretive procedure in the sense that it allows activation of lower copies, as well as instances of “scattered deletion”, where different pieces of different chain links are realized. It is argued that convergence requirements related to linearization and morphological fusion interact with economy computations regarding applications of deletion, yielding a complex crosslinguistic pattern whereby chains in the general case have only their highest link phonetically realized, but they may also trigger pronunciation of a lower link or even pronunciation of multiple links if convergence so demands.

Published online: 27 June 2007
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.107.03bos