The Theoretical And Experimental Studies On Merge And Move

Merge and move are basic syntactic operations for sentence derivation. The two took their budding shape in the earlier stage of transformational-generative theory (T-G). However, at that stage of the theory, the focus was on the representation of sentence structure instead of the derivation of the sentence. Therefore, as the specific means of derivation, merge and move were not emphasized.In the new century, Chomsky advocated biolinguistic study and phase theory which shifted the focus of T-G from the static representation of sentence structure to the dynamic derivation of that structure. Consequently, merge and move, as two fundamental syntactic operations essential to syntactic derivation once again entered the T-G domain and were given enough attention. On the contrary, after such a long time of theoretical development, representational pattern retained its influence over the T-G study and impeded the further development of merge and move study.In order to solve this problem, the present study aims to answer the following research questions:1) Merge order:Based on the representational pattern, the traditional T-G theory advocated the leftward merge order. The question here is whether this leftward merge order truly reveals the syntactic and biolinguistic truth. If it does not, what will be the proper merge order?2) The existence of move:The recent experimental and theoretical studies concerning move challenged move as an independent syntactic operation. The present study makes attempts to answer the question:Is move a syntactic truth?3) Move pattern:For the convenience of representational unification, T-G established the successive cyclical move pattern. The present study aims to make it clear that if move is a syntactic truth, what should be appropriate move pattern?4) Merge and move relation:What is the relation between merge and move and what is their relevance to language evolution?These questions will be tentatively approached by the present study through both theoretical and experimental studies for the purpose of offering a systematic reexamination to merge and move. For the merge order, the logic method of reducing to absurdity is adopted to prove that leftward merge order turns against both the syntactic and biolinguistic truth. Thus, leftward merge order is insensible. For the existence of move, an experiment based on E-prime by using two different categories of relative clause is conducted. One category is to use relative as the subject of the clause and the other is to use the relative as the object of the clause. By detecting whether students have delay in responding to the clauses with the relatives as objects, whether move exists can be revealed. For the move pattern, the present study first classifies move categories and then cancels those unnecessary ones to sentence derivation. Based on this research work, a new move pattern will be provided. The last research question will be examined under the theoretical background of biolinguistic study. The separate roles played by merge and move will be discussed and then the relation between the two will be analyzed.The major findings of the present study are as follows:As far as merge order is concerned, the traditional T-G assumed a leftward merge order. This merge order is to compromise constituency and predication and establish the asymmetric c-commanding. In this sense, leftward merge order was remarkably influenced by representational pattern. If this merge order is followed, case, agreement and binding relation can not be properly established and some syntactic phenomena like VP-fronting and double object can not be satisfactorily explained. From the neurolinguistic perspective, the leftward merge order violates the mechanism of language processing and loads heavier burden on language faculty. The present study advocates a rightward merge order and illuminates its specific procedures. Meanwhile, the present study deems that adjuncts can enter derivation either from right or from left.Concerning whether move exists, the experiment conducted by the present study indicates:Compared with that of subject relative clause, the students’response time to object relative clause is evidently slower. When the interfering factors are excluded, the conclusion can be drawn that move does exist in sentence derivation.As for move pattern, for the representational unification, the traditional T-G designated a strict successive cyclical move pattern. Both the head and the complement of the phase rise from lower branch of the tree diagram to the upper one. The present study holds that subjects can be directly located at the specifier position of T. In this sense, subject move can be cancelled. For languages in which case filter condition must be satisfied, object move has to remain. The subject move in seem structure, as a matter of fact, is object move. Two head moves, separately T-C move and V-T move should remain but not V-v. The main purpose of introducing v into sentence derivation is to construct three-place predicate structure and it can not be universally applied to all structures. Different from the move pattern of traditional T-G, move crossing phase nodes ought to be completed in one step.For merge and move relation, the present study makes it clear that in the language evolution, merge came into existence before move. Merge concerns the logical construction while move involves pragmatic effect and thus merge and move are complementary to each other in communication. Generally speaking, if move does not obstruct merge, merge enjoys priority to move.In a word, the present study makes attempts to do both theoretical and experimental research concerning merge and move. Theoretically, the present study advocates rightward merge order and illuminates the specific derivation process. At the same time, a new move pattern is established through careful examination of the necessity of different categories of move. Some Chinese and English structures are also derived in accordance with the merge order and move pattern advocated here. Through a behavioral experiment, the possible existence of move is proved, which will benefit the further study on move.