Philosophy of The Verb-Movement in Writing An Essay

 By: TOEFL consultant

An explanation of V-movement takes a surface structure moving verbs (V) out of verb phrases (VP) into a filled or empty finite infinitive (I) constituent. It also carries tenses containing present or past forms and agreement features consisting of both persons and numbers. Moreover, here, the filled finite form takes place. Thus, it regards as an affirmative transformation because it affirms the sentence, and thereby indicates an extra heavy stress.

For example:

Marry [I does] [VP [V study] English.

Marry [I does] [VP [V give] the English book to me.

           

In addition, that the deep structure contains the empty finite infinitive is permitted.

 For example:

Marry [I e         ] [VP [V study] English]].

Marry [I studies] [VP   [V_____] English]].

It is plausible that the verb “study” moves into the empty I position, so it also carries tenses containing present forms and agreement features consisting of both persons and numbers.

References

 Chomsky, Noam. 1969.  Syntactic Structure. Paris : Mouton.

Radford, Andrew. 1992. Transformational Grammar: A First Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.