Phase Extension Contours of a theory of the role of head movement in phrasal extraction

Abstract 1. The Program Starting out from the central ingredients of the analysis of the locality restrictions on Predicate Inversion presented in Den Dikken (2006a), in this paper I will lay the foundations for a theory of syntactic locality and the relationship between phrasal extraction and head movement that is predicated on the premises below: (1) Phase Impenetrability syntactic relationships (Agree) and processes (Move) are constrained by the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC) of Chomsky (2000 et passim ): in phase α with head H, the domain is not accessible to operations outside α, only H and its edge are accessible to such operations (2) Inherent Phase an inherent phase is a predication (subject–predicate structure) (3) Phase Extension syntactic movement of the head H of a phase α up to the head X of the node β dominating α extends the phase up from α to β; α loses its phasehood in the process, and any constituent on the edge of α ends up in the domain of the derived phase β as a result of Phase Extension