Parallel Merge and Sideward Movement - Implications for Reconstruction Effects

Parallel Merge and Sideward Movement

  Regarding across-the-board wh-questions, two kinds of interesting approaches have been made in recent years: Parallel Merge approach (Citko 2005) and Sideward Movement approach (Nunes 2002, Hornstein & Nunes 2002, Cho 2005 and others). According to Citko (2005), the construction is derived through Parallel Merge, which creates multi-dominant, symmetric structures that become antisymmetric in the course of the derivation. By contrast, Nunes (2001), Hornstein & Nunes (2002), Nunes (2004) and Cho (2005) propose that the constructions are derived through Sideward Movement. Under the assumption that Move is output of interaction of the independent operations, Copy, Merge, and Delete, sideward movement refers to merge the copy of α with a syntactic object K, which has been independently assembled and is unconnected to K. The parallel merge approach and sideward movement approach are different in at least one crucial respect. The former approach involves a single copy of the wh-pronouns. By contrast, the latter approach involves two copies. This difference has implications for symmetric or asymmetric reconstruction effects. This paper shows that the sideward movement approach assuming two copies of wh-phrases is on the right track in explaining both symmetric and asymmetric reconstruction effects.