Found:
reconstruction
SYNTAX: operation proposed in Chomsky (1977b) in the derivation of LF from S-structure, which returns material pied-piped by wh-movement to the extraction site so as to derive an operator-variable chain headed by the wh-operator itself. EXAMPLE: by reconstruction, the LF (i)b is derived from the SS (i)a:
(i) a which book about Mary does he like t
b which x, does he like [ x book about Mary ]
As a result, interpretation of the LF is relatively straightforward. Syntactic evidence for reconstruction comes from the behavior of pied-piped material with respect to binding theory. EXAMPLE: in (ii),
(ii) which book about himself does John like tthe anaphor himself can apparently be bound by the NP John, which does not, however, c-command it at SS. This can be explained if the constituent containing the anaphor is returned to its pre-movement position prior to the operation of binding condition A. Other analyses of such "reconstruction phenomena" can involve an extended notion of c-command, a reordering of the model of grammar (van Riemsdijk & Williams 1981), or a view of movement as copying and deletion (Chomsky 1992).
| LIT. | Chomsky, N. (1993) Chomsky, N. (1977b) Riemsdijk, H. van and E. Williams (1986) Williams, E. (1994) |