Questions, Wh-movement

Questions are special sentencial types in English. They end with a question mark and demand an answer. They have a different kind of sentence structure. The finite verb occurs before the subject, and the wh word occurs before the finite verb if the question does not begin with a wh word. In case os the questions beginning with a wh word, the wh word itself is the subject.

The difference in the word order movement is due to transformation rule. This rule is Question Word Movement rule. This can be studies with the following example:

You slice onions with a knife.

  you (present tense) slice onions with what   
^                                                              |

The tense carried by the verb 'slice' is separated form the actual verb in this representation.

what          you (present) slice onions with t

The element t is a wh-trace. It is an invisible mark left by the question word 'what'.

Next, the present tense is moved to the left of the subject. This is called Subject-Auxillary Inversion.

what       (present) you slice onions with t

SInce the present tense cannot be pronounced by itself, it needs the right kind of word to dock on to. Hence, the word 'do' is brought to support the present tense.

what do+present you slice onions with t

Phrase Structure Tree

Sentence
/                            \
Noun phrase Predicate Phrase
/           \                    /              \
Det.     Noun         Aux.            VP
|                 |              |               /       \
This         boy         will          V       PP
                                                |       /      \
                                           speak   P     NP
                                                         |       /     \
                                                        to    Det.   N
                                                                 |         |
                                                                that girl

Syntactic Constituent

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that is concerned with the study of units larger than the word: like phrases, clauses and sentences. These different units larger than single words are called syntactic constituent.

A syntactic constituent can be determined by the following five tests:

1. Substitution
2. Conjoining
3. Distribution
4. Replacement by Anaphors
5. Parenthetical Insertion

1. The test of substituion
The monkey ate the banana.
The monkey took away my books.

The monkey ate the banana.
That little boy ate the banana.

The noun phrases and the verb phrase can be replaced.

2. The test of conjoining

My friend and I watched a movie yesterday.
I watched a movie yesterday and ate a burger.

3. The test of distribution

That little boy is cute.
The actor gave a flower to that little boy.


4. The test of replacement by anaphora
Anaphora is an expression that 'stand in', i.e. replace, certain kinds of syntatctic constituents.

The girl in the blue dress thinks that the boy in white T-shirt is attractive.
The girl in the blue dress thinks that he is attractive.

5. The test of parenthetical insertion

I was surprised by his visit.
I was, coincidently, surprised by his visit.