语段理论下的WH-移位限制研究

A Study of Constraints on Wh-movement in the Framework of the Phase Theory

对wh-移位限制的研究贯穿于转换生成语法发展的整个过程。从早期的管约论到上世纪90年代后期的最简方案再到最近的语段理论,生成语法经历了从繁到简的发展过程,这可以从wh-移位限制条件的更新找到佐证。管约论时期错综复杂的限制条件逐渐被废弃,取而代之的是语段理论下的语段不可穿透条件。这不仅体现了限制条件的简化,更重要的是突破了结构导向的局限性,回归到推导程序的一般性,是由现象描写向本质阐释的转变,这也标志着生成语法理论走向成熟。

The study of constraints on wh-movement is found throughout the development of the transformational generative grammar, from the early Government and Binding Theory to the Minimalist Program of the late 1990s and the latest Phase Theory. During the whole process, generative grammar gradually discharges its complex conditions and acquires simplicity, which is justified by the updating of constrains on wh-movement. During the period of Government and Binding Theory, there were complicated constraints on wh-movement for different wh-structures, but they all have been abandoned and replaced by one uniform phase impenetrability condition now. This is not just the simplification of constraints, more importantly, it breaks through the limitation of structure- orientation and resumes the general derivation. It is the transformation from the description of phenomena to the explanation of the nature behind. It also marks the maturity of the theory of generative grammar.