This paper proposes and motivates a theory of movement based on the notion of "unmarked" vs. "marked" internal merge (IM) in place of "A-/A`-movement." Unmarked IM is a consequence of the unmarked edge feature (EF) (Chomsky 2008) whereas marked IM is ...
This paper proposes and motivates a theory of movement based on the notion of "unmarked" vs. "marked" internal merge (IM) in place of "A-/A`-movement." Unmarked IM is a consequence of the unmarked edge feature (EF) (Chomsky 2008) whereas marked IM is a consequence of the marked EF. The unmarked EF is the default EF for every lexical item (LI), which is "optionally deletable" (Chomsky pc), whereas the marked EF is the result of blocking the "optional deletability" of the default unmarked EF. Hence, unmarked IM should be a free optional operation triggered by an unmarked EF whereas marked IM should be an exceptional obligatory operation triggered by a marked EF. To conclude, movements across languages should be characterized as either a free optional "unmarked" IM or an exceptional obligatory "marked" IM according to the markedness theory of movement.