On Movement out of Moved Elements, Labels, and Phases

Abstract

The article deduces a modified version of the traditional ban on movement out of moved elements that provides a new perspective on it. Under the proposed analysis, the problem with the movement of YP out of moved XP does not arise at the point where YP moves out of XP, as in previous accounts. Instead, it arises already with the movement of XP: XP itself cannot undergo movement in this case. Any later movement out of XP is then trivially blocked. The proposed analysis leaves room for movement out of moved elements to take place in well-defined contexts. Several constructions bear this out, including German/Dutch r-pronoun constructions, Slavic left-branch extraction, and quantifier float more generally. What the proposed analysis deduces is then not the traditional ban on movement out of moved elements, but a ban on movement of phases with nonagreeing specifiers, which the article argues should replace the former ban. As a result, the analysis also extends to the immobility of verb-second clauses in German. The article also provides a new perspective on the Adjunct Condition (the ban on movement out of adjuncts). It shows that movement out of adjuncts is possible in the same configuration as movement out of moved elements. The proposed account of the latter is then extended to the Adjunct Condition. The article also proposes a labeling-based account of the Coordinate Structure Constraint, which also captures the across-the-board-movement exception.