A note on movement in logical grammar

Abstract

In this article, we make some brief remarks on overt and covert movement in logical grammar. With respect to covert movement (e.g. quantification), we observe how a treatment in terms of displacement calculus interacts with normal modalities for intensionality to allow a coding in logical grammar of the distinction between weak and strong quantifiers (i.e. those that may or may not scope nonlocally such as a and every respectively). With respect to overt movement (e.g. relativisation), we observe how displacement calculus can support a coding of a linear filler-gap dependency similar to that employed in lambda grammars, but we argue that this general approach does not extend to either the multiplicity nor the island-sensitivity of parasitic gaps, for which we advocate instead treatment in terms of a bracketconditioned contraction subexponential.

Keywords

• covert and overt movement
• parasitic extraction
• relativisation
• weak and strong quantification