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On the putative rule of sentence-lifting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Deborah M. James  and
Robert I. Binnick
Deborah M. James
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Robert I. Binnick
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

Sentences like the following are basically the same in meaning (although not absolutely the same).

  • (1) I believe Ralph came

  • (2) Ralph came, I believe

These have been described by Green and Morgan (1972) and Hooper and Thompson (1973) as related by a transformational rule of Sentence-Lifting or Complement Preposing (to be abbreviated here as “Slifting”). By this hypothesized rule, an underlying embedded sentence, here “Ralph came,” is raised so that it precedes its higher subject and verb. Bolinger (1968) describes sentences such as (1) and (2) as related by a rule of Main Phrase Postposing, by which the material at the beginning of the sentence is moved to the end. None of these writers give any arguments for setting up the rule as they do.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , Fall 1976 , pp. 153 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1976

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