Rethinking linearization

The reason “movement” is used to describe the relationship between an
interrogative phrase in English and the syntactic position is binds a variable in, is because
that variable is silent. Impressionistically, the interrogative phrase has changed
location – it has moved from the position interpreted as a variable. To derive this
feature of the relationship while maintaining a semantics that correctly captures
the nature of the variable is not trivial. The presently best model is one that claims
that the interrogative phrase is, at least partially, in both positions – the position it
is spoken in and the position the variable is in. Jairo Nunes has suggested a method
of using that model and an algorithm that converts syntactic representations into
strings – a linearization algorithm – to derive the fact that a change of location
is how being in two positions is manifest. I develop this idea in a framework that
expresses the “be in two positions” syntax with phrase markers that allow a term
to be dominated by more than one mother. This interpretation of movement does
not fit well with the execution Jairo Nunes had of his idea. I develop an alternative
implementation that preserves his leading idea.