The Syntax of Givenness Ivona Kucerová

(10-e)? At this point all needs of the given elements are satisfied, i.e., there is no given element
that would be asymmetrically c-commanded by a non-presupposed element. Thus,
from the point of view of G-movement, the derivation is complete. 4
Even though the example in (4) contains two given elements, the derivation proceeds
without any interesting interaction between them. The reason is that only one given element
undergoes G-movement. In the next section, I will look closely at cases where more than
one given element G-moves at the same point in the derivation. Two questions will be at
the center of our discussion: (i) in what order G-movement of more than one element takes
place, and (ii) if a constituent contains more than one given element, can the constituent
move in one step, or do the elements need to undergo separate movements?
3.2 Multiple G-movement
This section looks at cases where more than one given element undergoes G-movement.
We will see that if there is a constituent that dominates more than one given element, it
is preferable to G-move the whole constituent than to G-move each element separately.
Sometimes, however, there is no such constituent that could G-move. I will here investigate
under what conditions more than one given element moves as a single constituent.
Then I will address the question of how given elements move if they must undergo separate
G-movements.
Let’s first look again at example (7), repeated below as (11). The example differs from
the examples that we have seen so far in that it is both the direct object and the indirect
object that must G-move over the verb (recall that the verb must independently move to v,
thus both the objects end up being asymmetrically c-commanded by a new element). The
crucial question is how exactly the two objects, marked by square brackets, move above
the verb.
(11) I have heard that a friend of your cleaning lady stole the new chair from her? Is it
true?
a. Naše uklízečka
[své známé] [tu novou židli] || dala.
our cleaning-woman.Nom REFL friend.Dat that new chair.Acc gave
‘(No, that’s not true.) Our cleaning woman GAVE the chair to her friend.’
The question is whether (i) the two objects move as one constituent, or (ii) whether they
move separately. I will adopt here the former option, arguing that G-movement is as economical
as possible. What I mean by that is that if it is possible to move several given
elements as one constituent, then such movement is preferred to moving them separately.
The condition is stated in (12). With such a condition in place, we need to ask under what
conditions more than one given element may move as one constituent.
(12) Minimize instances of G-movement
4 The derivation continues by merging T and attracting the subject, i.e., the closest element, to Spec,TP.
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