In the same sentence "Which game did you play last weekend?", where are the traces left by movement?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Wh-phrases originate in the position of the element they question, so "which game" starts in the object/complement position of the verb play and is then moved to the clause-peripheral Spec-CP position, leaving a trace (or copy) in that original complement position.

Relevant knowledge points:
- Wh-movement: interrogative phrases (wh-words) move to Spec-CP to form questions, leaving a trace/copy at their original position.
- Complement position of a verb = the object position (what the verb selects).
- T head (Tense) hosts the auxiliary or tense morphology; C head (Complementizer) hosts the interrogative feature and attracts the wh-phrase to Spec-CP; subject position is the specifier of TP (typically filled by "you" here).

Step-by-step reasoning with intermediate representations:
1. Base (deep) structure: [TP you [T did] [VP play which game]] — "which game" is the complement (object) of play.
2. Wh-movement: The wh-phrase moves from the VP-complement to Spec-CP to satisfy the interrogative feature on C: [CP Which game_i [C did] [TP you [T t_did] [VP play t_i ]]]. A trace or copy t_i remains where the wh-phrase originated — that is, in the complement position of play.
3. Do-support/auxiliary movement: The auxiliary did appears in T (or moves to C in some analyses), but this is separate from the wh-trace; it does not host the wh-trace.

Why the correct answer is correct:
- The trace is left in the original position of the moved element: the object slot of play (the complement position). That trace is the syntactic placeholder showing the wh-phrase’s origin.

Why other options are incorrect:
- T head: may host the auxiliary but not the wh-trace; the wh-phrase moves to Spec-CP, not into T.
- C head: can attract the wh-phrase but does not contain the trace; the trace stays at the original position.
- Subject position: occupied by "you" here; the wh-phrase did not originate there.

Final confirmation: the trace is in the complement position of "play," matching the provided answer.

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