ON TRACE MOVEMENT

Abstract

This paper concerns the accessibility of trace to the operation Attract/Move proposed in Chomsky (1995). Arguing against Chomsky's (1995) suggestion that traces of A'-movement can undergo further attraction unlike those of A-movement, the present study claims that the operation Attract/Move makes no distinction between traces left by A- and A'-movement. Using data which resist the trace movement analysis, an alternative analysis of Case checking without trace movement is argued for. The present study also shows that some reconstruction phenomena require trace movement, and finally presents a new proposal for the correct generalization, incorporating a structurally defined feature distinction (major/non-major), in which the trace distinction plays no role.