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2024-05-13T17:07:32Z

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In [[syntax]], '''movement''' is a process by which sentences end up spoken out loud in a different order than matches their underlying structure.

Generativist syntacticians say that sentences have a "deep structure" that adheres to universal grammar, but various language-specific constraints transform this into the "surface structure" when the sentence gets actually realized.

== In English ==
For example, English has something called ''wh-movement'': when we turn a sentence like ''Mary wants Bill to dance'' into a wh-question, we say '''''Who does''' Mary want () to dance?''

The generative explanation for this is that the question has a deep structure like ''Mary wants '''who''' to dance?'', and then for pragmatic reasons, the question word moves to the front of the sentence and gets supported by "does". There is a '''trace''' marked by () in the spot where "who" moved from.

There is good evidence for these wh-traces. English speakers tend to agree that we can't contract the question to ''Who does Mary wanna dance?'' — we can imagine the wh-trace is there, unpronounced, but blocking the contraction.

Another example is inversion: in questions, auxiliary verbs move to the front of the sentence, like ''We should have told her'' → '''''Should''' we () have told her?'' Again, the trace blocks contraction: ''Should we've /wiːv/ told her?'' sounds wrong.

== In Toaq ==
Toaq's word order is VSO (verb-subject-object), but the [[Kuna]] output for a sentence like {{t|Noaq jí kúe nha}} indicates an SVO deep structure: {{t|jí noaq kúe}}. What's going on?

The generativist "verb phrase" has the verb and the object generated side-by-side. Even in VSO natural languages like Irish, there is evidence for verb-and-object VP structures. Meanwhile, there is also some evidence for verb-and-object structures in Toaq: for example, [[prepositional phrase]]s like {{t|tî kúa}}, or object-incorporating verbs like {{t|po}}.

A generativist approach for analyzing a VSO language is thus that the verb and object really are side-by-side in the deep structure, and that the verb moves up to the front of the sentence for ''some'' reason.<ref>Hoemaı has suggested that there is "room for fanfic" as to why this happens in Toaq. Perhaps {{t|Noaq jí kúe nha}} originated as a cleft construction like ''Read it, I'll do that book!'' and then over time it got watered down and became normal grammar.</ref>

A sentence with a [[serial verb]], like {{t|Pu dıe tua sıq nháo jí máq}}, has a deep structure like {{t|Pu [nháo dıe [jí tua [sıq máq]]]}}. We say that there is an underlying Chinese-like nested SVO structure, but all verbs move to the tense ("V-to-T movement").

Toaq could have been designed as SVO from the start, and have a surface structure that's closer to the deep structure. There are aesthetic arguments in favor of VSO. For example, VSO grammar is similar to the logic notation <math>P(x,y,z)</math> for predicates and their arguments.

== Footnotes ==

Movement - Revision history

Laqme: initial article