SYNTAX

MOVEMENT AND DELETION

SUBJECT AUXILIARY
INVERSION (SAI)
Lorraine has
emptied the
garbage.

Has Lorraine
emptied the
garbage.

( Derived the second

one from the first by
movement- SAI )
 MOVEMENT

Syntactic operation by which phrases

can be rearranged in a sentence under
specific conditions or constraints.
 DEEP STRUCTURE

Application of Rules

SURFACE STRUCTURE
 DEEP AND
SURFACE STRUCTURE

DEEP STRUCTURE

Clause in its base word order before syntactic rules

such as movement or deletion apply
SURFACE STRUCTURE

Clause in its derived order after movement and

deletion rules have applied.
 Charlie broke the window.

The window was broken by

Charlie.

EXAMPLE
Different in syntactic form
(Different in surface
structure)

Noun phrase + Verb +Noun

phrase ( deep structure)
Deletion Rules
Silent syntax – syntactic operation of deletion
Verb Phrase Deletion
i) Deleting a VP when it is identical to
another VP somewhere close by, but
not necessarily in the same sentence.

Even though she shouldn’t stay out late

tonight but Violet will stay out late tonight.

Even though she shouldn’t , Violet will stay

out late tonight.
Jerome made the football team, but Daniel
did not make it.

Jerome made it but Daniel did not .

"Pastry chefs always use unsalted butter in

their baking, and you should, too."
(Cindy Mushet, The Art and Soul of
Baking. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008)
2) Pronoun preference :
an antecedent- something to which it
refers.

Sally loves her llama, and it loves her

too.

It llama

her Sally
Speaker A : Did Billy buy a llama?

Speaker B : She did

Gapping deletion operation that
applies in coordinate clauses.
GAPPING
Gapping is illustrated in the
next examples, in which the
second sentence is derived by
the deletion of the first
sentence.
 Eg.
“John loves Mary, and Bill Loves Mary (too).
“John loves Mary, and Bill (too).

“John hates Jane, and Bill hates Mary.”

“John hates Jane, and Bill, Jane.
Eg.
“Ziggy bought a Harley, and Alfie bought a
Yamaha.”
“Ziggy bought a Harley, and Alfie Ώ a
Yamaha.”
Ώ = bought

“Steven likes cats, but Sally likes dogs.”

“Steven likes cats, but Sally, dogs.”
Ώ = likes
 Constraints on Deletion
• VP deletion can operate only under certain condition,
in either ;-
 A subordinate clause / dependent clause
- begin with a subordinate conjunction / relative
pronoun, will contain both subject & V.
- will not complete the sentences.
 Coordinate clause
- a clause that is a main part of the sentence and
is important as any other part.
- connected by conjunctions
• Examples :
 Violet will stay out late tonight even though she shouldn’t [].
subordinate clause
 Sally said she would get a llama,
and she did [].
• In each of these examples, the [] is (unambiguously)
interpreted as identical to another constituent in the sentence.
• Sally said she would get a llama, and she did [].
([] = get a llama)
• Violet will stay out late tonight even though she shouldn’t [].
([] = stay out late tonight)
• VP deletion involves deleting a VP somewhere close by, not
necessarily in the same sentence.
• Differences between VP deletion and Gapping

VP Deletion Gapping

Follows its Follow its

antecedent antecedent
Can also precede Cannot precede its
its antecedent antecedent
• VP deletion
- Even though she shouldn’t [], Violet will
stay out late tonight.
deleted VP
antecedent
• Gapping
- Alfie [] a Yamaha, and Ziggy bought a Harley.

gapped V antecedent V
 VP Deletion

Deep Structure Sally wanted to buy a

llama, and she did buy a llama
Application of rule VP Deletion

Surface structure Sally wanted to buy a

llama, and she did [].
 Gapping
Deep structure Sally likes llamas, but Sam
likes alpacas

Application of rule gapping

Surface structure Sally likes llama, but Sam

[] alpacas.
 Reodering
phrases:movement
Subject-auxiliary inversion(SAI)
1. Movement of auxiliary verb to sentence-initial position

DEEP
• The cat is lying under the chair.
STRUCTURE

Application
• SAI
of rule

• Is the cat lying under the

SURFACE
STRUCTURE
chair?
2. Movement of changing active sentences to passive sentences

• Edward ate a piece of blueberry cheese

DEEP
STRUCTUR cake just now at Starbucks.
E

APPLICATI • SAI
ON OF
RULE

• A piece of blueberry cheese cake was

SURFACE
STRUCTUR eaten by Edward just now at Starbucks.
E
 CONSTRAINTS ON
MOVEMENT
1. Passive can apply only in clauses
with certain verbs.
2. It’s impossible with static verbs,
e.g. resembled, become, remain.
3. It’s acceptable in clauses with
active verbs, e.g. meet, discuss
Examples:
The child met an adult.
An adult was met by the child.

The girls discussed old friends.

Old friends were discussed by the girls.

The child became an adult.

*An adult was become by the child.
 - There are also constraints on SAI. Although the
rule applies freely in main clauses, it cannot apply
in subordinate clauses:

May is singing in the aria Is May singing in the aria?

I think May is singing in the aria

* I think is May singing in the aria.

WH-MOVEMENT
Can be described as operating in 2 steps
• First, a NP is replaced by interrogative wh- phrase (who, what, when,
where, how, why) or wh- phrase (which car, how many teeth, what in the
world)
• Then the phrase is fronted to clause-initial position.
Sometimes involves subject auxiliary inversion

Example :

DEEP STRUCTURE You talked to Richard.

Rule 1 : Substitution of wh- phrase : You talked to who(m)?
Rule 2 : Movement of wh- phrase : Who(m) did you talk to
___?

SURFACE STRUCTURE Who(m) did you talk to?

 Not only NP, but others phrases as well.
First, substitute the phrase with a wh-word or phrase, then we
front it to sentence-initial position.

Example :

The students wrote their term papers quickly yesterday so they

could go swimming.

1. What did the students write quickly yesterday so they could

go swimming?
2. Why did the students write their term papers quickly
yesterday?
Wh- movement is subject to a number of
constraint.
Example of moving the object of a subordinate
clause to the front of the sentence.
You think [that William likes pickles].
What do you think [that William likes ___ ]?

You think [that William likes pickles].

Who do you think [ ___ likes pickles]?

The subordinate clause can also optionally be introduced by the word that.
However, when that is present in this case, wh- movement is apparently
blocked from applying. (Because if we do, the result is ungrammatical)

You think [that William likes pickles].

*Who do you think [that ___ likes pickles]?
• Wh- movement of the subject of a subordinate clause is
possible only if that is absent.
• Wh- movement of the object of a subordinate clause seems
unaffected by the presence or absence of that.

Shark eat meat, but whale like plankton.

coordinate clause coordinate clause

Stefan thinks that whales like plankton.

subordinate clause
From the discussion, the object NP plankton can undergo wh-
movement in the second sentence, moving over that.

What does Stefan thinks that whales like ____ ?

But plankton can’t undergo wh-movement in the coordinate

clause.

*What do sharks eat meat and whales like ____ ?