Review Article: Antisymmetry, Linearization and Movement

A review of Andrea Moro's Dynamic Antisymmetry (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000) presents a summary of Moro's theory, which is based on a weak version of Richard Kayne's (1994) linear correspondence axiom that tolerates symmetry prior to linearization at phonetic form & views movement as a device to rescue symmetrical configurations; movement & phrase structure geometry are therefore not independent but nontrivially interlocked. Four case studies to which Moro applies his innovative theory are critically examined: (1) English copular sentences & (2) split wh-movement constructions in Dutch & German, both treated as instances of bare small clauses; & two multiple specifier constructions, (3) subject-object asymmetry in English root wh-questions & (4) Italian inverse copular constructions. It is argued that exceptional case marking & wh-movement are problematic for Moro's theory, which leaves uninterpretable features to be deleted. 29 References. J. Hitchcock