2.1.3 Sentences within phrases

The fact that we can substitute one phrase for another is an indication that they both are phrases as they both have the same distribution. But note, the new phrase in (17b) contains something that could stand alone as a sentence:

2.3.1 Substitution

3.2.3 Traces

Because of examples such as these it has been proposed that there are two types of movement. One, known as substitution, moves an element into a vacant position. The other, called adjunction, creates an adjunction structure by the movement. Thus, PP preposing might be argued to move the PP to a position adjoined to the left of the clause:

7.3.2 Wh-movement

The truth of (33) is fairly easy to establish. First we find the individual that the name Tim refers to and then we see if they have the property of being tall. The truth of the second statement is not quite so easy. For a start, there is no individual to whom the word someone refers and so it isn’t just a matter of checking to see if the person has the property of being tall. Instead we must go to the set of things that someone could potentially refer to (the set of people relevant to a conversation, perhaps) and go through each of them individually to see if they are tall. If at least one of them is tall, then the sentence in (33) is true. If none of them are tall then the sentence is false. Consider what who means in (32a). Like the quantifier someone the interrogative pronoun does not refer to a known individual. Instead, the hearer is asked to perform a process of going to the set of potential referents and finding those that if substituted for the wh-element would produce a true sentence: