Flavors of movement

Abstract

In this paper we revisit a distinction that has been core to GB and Minimalist approaches to the property of displacement in natural languages: the opposition between A(rgumental) and A′ (non-argumental) positions, as sources and targets of the general operation Move-α. Minimalism brought an additional requirement for the establishment of chains generated via movement, the Chain Uniformity Principle, requiring that all members of a chain be in uniform positions with respect to a certain property. We will argue that such chains, even if possible in principle, are not desirable for both theoretical and empirical reasons, with Radical Minimalism as our theoretical framework. The rejection of the Chain Uniformity Principle will ultimately lead us to revisit the A/A′ distinction as a real and relevant theoretical concept.