Verb Movement

在一大类语言中，动词出现在非规范位置的句子中。这些现象最近在动词运动方面进行了分析，这一过程提出了独特的经验和理论问题。头部（如动词）的运动表现出非常特殊的特性，这与短语类别的运动特性不同，这从生成语法开始就一直是句法研究的主要焦点。动词的运动是严格局部的，在不同的语言中表现出显著的差异。中心的经验问题是动词运动过程是否表现出一种独特的跨结构和跨语言的语法操作。核心理论问题是观察到的局部性和变异是否可以归结为支配短语范畴行为的原则。这项研究的核心思想有三个。首先，有两种类型的动词移动过程：一种是将动词移动到助动词位置，另一种是将其移动到现在时位置。其次，这些运动留下的痕迹受制于在音系上起作用的主要政府条件，也可能受制于逻辑形式的约束条件。第三个观点是，经典的运动概念应该根据多重表征之间的相关性来重新解释。这涉及到根据“离域”范畴的概念概括派生的概念。这些中心思想可以通过许多不同的方式正式实现。对新出现的理论进行参数化的需要将塑造正确的表述，以便它能适当地适应观察到的变化。参数化必须既响应语言之间的共时变化，又响应给定语言各阶段之间的历时关系。关于罗曼语和日耳曼语之间的差异以及英语和法语历史的大量工作强烈表明，差异集中在可识别的子组中，这些子组反映了少数潜在参数。该项目侧重于当代语言学理论的一系列相关核心问题。研究者们将研究许多不同的语言，并试图发展和完善一种语法理论模型，以一种彻底而简洁的方式解释它们之间的差异。该项目的成功成果将为我们理解语言的潜在本质以及人类思维提供重大进展。

ABSTRACT In a large class of languages there are sentences in which verbs appear in non-canonical positions. These phenomena have recently been analyzed in terms of verb movement, a process that raises unique empriical and theoretical questions. The movement of heads (such as verbs) displays very special properties which differ from the movement properties of phrasal categories, which have been a major focus of syntactic research from the inception of generative grammar. The movement of verbs is strictly local and displays significant variation from language to language. The central empirical question is whether verb movement processes manifest a single unique grammatical operation across construc- tions and across languages. The central theoretical issue is whether the observed locality and variation can be reduced to the principles governing the behavior of phrasal categories. Three ideas lie at the center of the research. First, there are two types of verb movement processes: one moves the verb to an auxiliary position, the other moves it to a presentential position. Second, these movements leave behind traces which are subject to a head government condition which operates in the phonology and, possibly, to the Binding Conditions in Logical Form. The third idea is that the classical notion of movement should be reinterpreted in terms of relatedness among multiple representations. This involves generalizing the notion of derivation in terms of the concept "delocalized" category. These central ideas can be formally realized in many different ways. The correct formulation will be shaped by the need to parameterize the emerging theory so that it accommodates the observed variations appropriately. The parameterization must be responsive to both synchronic variation among languages and diachronic relationships among stages of a given language. Extensive work on variation among the Romance and Germanic languages and on the history of English and French strongly suggests that differences cluster in identifiable subgroups which reflect a small number of underlying parameters. The project focuses on a related set of central issues in contemporary linguistic theory. The investigators will examine a number of different languages and attempt to develop and refine a theoretical model of grammar which can account for the variations among them in a thorough and parsimonious way. A successful outcome of the project would provide a significant advance in our understanding of the underlying nature of language, and hence of the human mind.