Non-Clause-Bounded A-Movement: A Cross-Linguistic Study of ECM Constructions

Abstract

In standard GB theory, it is commonly believed that A-movement is strongly local, being necessarily clause-bounded and the clause-boundness of A-movement is mandated by various central principles of the theory, such as ECP and Binding Theory. Our goal in this paper is to show that this, in fact, is not the case, i.e., that there are languages which allow nonclause-bounded A-movement, through a cross-linguistic study of the socalled ECM constructions. In this paper, we show that ECM constructions in some languages do involve movement, i.e., raising, and that movement can be non-clause-bounded. Also discussed are various theoretical problems non-clause-bounded A-movement cause in standard GB-theory and how they can be solved.