syntactic movement
[/sɪnˈtæktɪk ˈmuːvmənt/]
nounpl: syntactic movements
movimento sintático
1. A linguistic process in generative grammar where a word or phrase changes its position from its underlying deep structure to its surface structure position during sentence derivation.
In the sentence 'What did John eat?', there is syntactic movement of the wh-word from the object position to the sentence-initial position.
Na sentença 'O que João comeu?', há um movimento sintático da palavra-qu da posição de objeto para a posição inicial da sentença.
2. The structural rearrangement of constituents governed by transformational rules in linguistic theory.
Syntactic movement explains how 'Mary was seen by John' derives from the active sentence 'John saw Mary'.
O movimento sintático explica como 'Maria foi vista por João' se deriva da sentença ativa 'João viu Maria'.
This is specialized academic terminology primarily used in linguistic theory, particularly within Chomskyan generative grammar frameworks. The term is prevalent in Brazilian and Portuguese university linguistics departments, where transformational-generative grammar remains an important part of formal syntax instruction. The concept has shaped modern linguistic theory globally and is central to understanding how languages generate sentences from abstract underlying structures.
Look up more words on Fala2Me
The free English-Portuguese dictionary with real Brazilian accents, NYC slang, conjugator and more
Open Fala2Me →