On primary and secondary movement

Abstract

Theories of A′-movement can be classified on the basis of how they relate primary movement (movement to the final scope position) to secondary movement (intermediate movement). The standard view maintains that primary movement and secondary movement are motivated and triggered by different grammatical factors. For instance, it can be assumed that primary movement is what ultimately drives syntactic operations while secondary operations have a supporting auxiliary role and serve as a partial implementation of primary movement. Some recent hypotheses, such as Chomsky’s edge feature (EF) hypothesis, have opened up the possibility of narrowing the gap between these two operations. Here we argue on the basis of Finnish wh-movement that there is no difference between primary and secondary A′-movement; they have exactly the same triggers and constraints, in addition to having other properties in common. We develop a theory of A′-movement that relies on a discourse-active edge feature at a phrase/phase head.