Augmented structure preservation and the Tensed S Constraint

Many grammatical phenomena occur only in “root clauses,” i.e., main clauses and a limited type of embedded clauses called indirect discourse. Among these are certain transformational movements. Earlier generative studies stipulate that root transformational movements are simply exempt from constraints on landing sites of movements. Two recent more restrictive theories remedy this. Rizzi (1997) restricts landing sites to SPEC and head positions of specially labeled projections such as TopP and FocP. Emonds (2004) proposes rather that such root projections (“Discourse Shells”) have no labels. This essay argues that root movements are then subject, like all others, to Structure Preservation, and that their landing sites are better conceived as SPECs and heads of “label-less” or a-categorial projections. Keywords: discourse shell; dislocation; focus movement; German Verb-second; head movement; left periphery; rightward movement; root transformation; structure-preservation; tensed-S constraint; topicalization