Head movement

Head Movement is a movement of a head, an X⁰, out of its projection to another head-position.

Example

in questions a finite verb may move to C⁰. In (i) the auxiliary will (an I, see INFL) is moved to C⁰, leaving a trace in I.

(i) [CP What [C willi] [IP John [I ti] buy]]?

Head movement obeys the Head Movement Constraint.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Chomsky, N. 1986b. Barriers, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Rizzi, L. 1990. Relativized Minimality, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.