Cyclic Derivation in Partial Wh-Movement

A partial wh-movement construction is one in which a contentful wh-phrase moves to a SpecCP lower than that from which it takes scope, while a wh-expletive with no apparent semantic value appears in the wh-scope position, & in every intervening specifier of CP. Two competing types of analysis have been put forth to explain this sort of movement: a direct wh-dependency approach (McDaniel 1989), & an indirect wh-dependency approach (Horvath 1997, Fanselow & Mahajan 1996). By employing the Minimalist notion of derivation by phase (Chomsky 2000, 2001a), this paper proposes an account of partial wh-movement that supports the indirect wh-dependency approach. Following Felser (2001), I posit that the wh-expletive is base-generated as an argument in object position of the verb, & that, through a type of small-clause predication, an association is established between the embedded CP & the wh-expletive through which Case & phi-features are shared. Furthermore, I establish a theory of expletive insertion & movement in keeping with Chomsky's (1993) Last Resort condition. In this way, we may implement pre-existing theoretical machinery to explain the mechanics that underlie partial wh-movement. References. Adapted from the source document