“HNPS” as a Combination of Focalization and Topicalization to the Left Periphery

Abstract

In this article, we will examine a displacement phenomenon in English called Heavy NP Shift (henceforth HNPS), which has traditionally received a rightward movement analysis in which the heavy NP undergoes a rightward movement operation, thereby occupying the adjunct position of the VP (Ross (1967), etc). On the other hand, Rochemont and Culicover (1997), among others, propose that HNPS involves the leftward movement of a heavy NP to the specifier position of a functional projection lower than TP and the subsequent leftward movement of a remnant category which contains the trace of the heavy NP to a higher position.Though partially adopting the idea of the previous leftward movement analyses, we argue against the analyses and propose a different kind of leftward \\bar{A}-movement analysis of HNPS. More specifically, pointing out some similarities between HNPS and Focus-Topicalization, we claim that HNPS involves the combination of two types of leftward \\bar{A}-movement operations to the functional projections in the left periphery, namely Focus-Topicalization of the heavy NP and Topic-Topicalization of the remnant TP. Moreover, we will claim that the generalization that no element is moved rightward across a sentence boundary, also known as the “Right Roof Constraint,” should be explained by the Phase Impenetrability Condition (Chomsky (2000, 2001)). Finally, we will address some potential problems concerning our analysis of HNPS and provide a possible solution to each of them.