Movement and Silence

Abstract This book presents a collection of recent articles by Richard Kayne, one of the top formal linguists in the world. It focuses on both comparative syntax, which uses differences between languages as a new and fine-grained tool for illuminating properties of the human language faculty, and antisymmetry, a restrictive proposal concerning the set of structures available to the language faculty. The essays included in this book address a series of questions having to do with the central notion of movement in syntax, especially remnant movement (a type of movement given special prominence by antisymmetry), and a series of questions revolving around silent elements (especially nouns and adjectives) that, despite their lack of phonetic realization, seem to have an important role in the syntax of all languages.