Head Movement and the PF Interface

Abstract

This paper examines subject-auxiliary inversion (SAl) in comparative and exclamative clauses and preposition-its complement inversion (PCI) in sluiced (or lP-elided) clauses of English. It will first be shown that SAl and PCI in these clauses interact with deletion and sentence stress assignment, that are considered to be PF operations. Based on this interaction at PF, I will argue that SAl and PCI in these clauses are most naturally understood as taking place at PF, that is, in the mapping from Spell-Out to PF. SAl and PCI in these clauses then constitute an argument that at least one kind of head-movement occurs after Spell-Out, with effects on word order.