Multiple Wh-Movement is not Special: The Subregular Complexity of Persistent Features in Minimalist Grammars
- Thomas Graf (Stony Brook University)
- Kalina Kostyszyn (Stony Brook University)
Abstract
Minimalist grammars have been criticized for their inability to analyze successive cyclic movement and multiple wh-movement in a manner that is faithful to the Minimalist literature. Persistent features have been proposed in the literature as a potential remedy (Stabler 2011, Laszakovits 2018). We show that not all persistent features are alike. The persistent features involved in multiple wh-movement do not increase subregular complexity, making this phenomenon appear very natural from the perspective of MGs. The persistent features in successive-cyclic movement, on the other hand, change the subregular nature of movement, favoring an alternative treatment along the lines of Kobele (2006)
Keywords: syntax, Minimalist grammars, subregular complexity, successive cyclic movement, multiple wh-movement, tier-based strictly local, first-order logic
How to Cite:
Graf, T. & Kostyszyn, K., (2021) “Multiple Wh-Movement is not Special: The Subregular Complexity of Persistent Features in Minimalist Grammars”, Society for Computation in Linguistics 4(1), 275-285. doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/2dfv-v219
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