Too Heavy to Move: an analysis of heavy noun phrase shift and related phenomena

Heavy noun phrase shift refers to the phenomenon where a “heavy” noun phrase (NP) is displaced to the right of its canonical position. In English, heavy NP shift most commonly refers to the object (in square brackets) being found at the right edge of the sentence, to the right of indirect objects, adverbs, prepositions, etc. (1) I gave _ to the students [presents that I had brought back from Spain]. (2) Romeo drank _ yesterday [the poison that he bought from the apothecary]. Despite the name, heavy NP shift does not cause the rightward movement of all heavy NPs; it turns out that most of the time, only direct objects participate in this phenomenon. For example, indirect objects do not undergo heavy NP shift: (3) *I gave _ presents [my neighbors living downstairs and next door]. In this senior essay, I explore Brooke’s proposal (2008) that heavy NPs actually do not move rightward, but are found in their original position instead, because they are “too heavy” to move leftward to their usual position. Novel evidence for his proposal from negative polarity items will be provided. I will argue that this in situ analysis explains why heavy NPs do not move in certain contexts (such as in (3)). I further claim that the in situ analysis at least also accounts for so-called extraposition from objects (4b) and sentential subject extraposition (5b). (4) (a) I read a book about Grimm’s Law yesterday. (b) I read a book yesterday about Grimm’s Law. (5) (a) [That he ate ten hotdogs] is amazing. (b) It is amazing [that he ate ten hotdogs].