Head Movement in Linguistic Theory

2006/01/01 by Ora Matushansky · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Linguistics and Discourse Analysis #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

paper · doi:10.1162/002438906775321184

crossref issued 2006/01/01 · crossref published 2006/01/01 · crossref published-print 2006/01/01 · openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · crossref created 2006/01/14 · crossref deposited 2021/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

In this article, I address the issue of head movement in current linguistic theory. I propose a new view of the nature of heads and head movement that reveals that head movement is totally compliant with the standardly suggested properties of grammar. To do so, I suggest that head movement is not a single syntactic operation, but a combination of two operations: a syntactic one (movement) and a morphological one (m-merger). I then provide independent motivation for m-merger, arguing that it can be attested in environments where no head movement took place

Citations

• Cyclic Linearization of Syntactic Structure
• Movement Operations after Syntax
• Movement and Control

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