UNRAVELING THE IMPORTANCE OF WH-MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH SYNTAX: THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

The CP Hypothesis posits that interrogative sentences involve the movement of the wh-phrase to a specifier position in the complementizer phrase (CP). In his later work on X-bar theory, in Barriers, Chomsky proposed that complements and specifiers are always maximal projections.  Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of the CP Hypothesis, this paper presents an analysis of wh-movement. It aims to elucidate the processes involved in wh-movement and its effects on sentence structure. The study addresses three central questions: the mechanism by which wh-phrase moves to the specifier position of CP, the rationale behind moving a question word into thespecifier of TP, and the constraints that govern this phenomenon. By analyzing empirical data and theoretical arguments, this paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of wh-movement in English syntax and its implications for linguistic theory.