Head movement constraint

Head Movement Constraint is a constraint originally formulated in Travis (1984:131):

(i) An X0 may only move into the Y0 which properly governs it

The HMC basically places a limit on the distance over which a head may be moved (head movement). In effect, the HMC prohibits skipping a governing head position, as in (ii): buy moves to COMP in disregard of its being properly governed only by the I⁰ will.

(ii) * [CP What [C buyi] [IP John [I will] [VP ti]]]?

Recently, it has been argued that the HMC can be derived from more general principles, such as the ECP.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Baker, M. 1988. Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
• Chomsky, N. 1986b. Barriers, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Rizzi, L. 1990. Relativized Minimality, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Travis,L. 1984. Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation, Diss, MIT.