Move is Remerge

In this paper I discuss a basic theoretical question: Does movement contain a step of copying? Since Chomsky (1993), Copy as an operation to derive displacement effects has been introduced into the syntactic theory. In contrast, it is also claimed that displacement effects are achieved by the operation Remerge, without any copy operation (Epstein et al. 1998, among others). I present some problems of the Copy Theory of movement: the problematic motivation and implementation of the assumed PF-deletion; a paradox with respect to the locality of feature-checking; and a problem in theta-role receptivity. I argue that overt movement is simply remerger of a given term, rather than copying of any element. The Remerge Theory works without the assumed operation of Copy, and is free from the problems of Copy Theory of movement. The paper also addresses how issues such as trace, reconstruction effects, and resumptive pronouns are dealt with in the Remerge Theory of movement.

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