Raising and lowering movement

This article looks at the recent approaches taken vis-à-vis the sentence structure of English and French. It looks at the different movements operating at D-structure and the possible reasons that lead to the verb in French raising to T and the English verb remaining in [spec, VP] triggering the lowering of T. These movements, we explain convincingly we hope, by arguing that they are triggered by AGR. In French AGR is strong and allows verb movements from V to T and to C. In English, on the other hand, AGR is weak and as a result, the verb remains unable to raise to T. This inability to move leads to the lowering of T to V level for support. This reasoning is backed up by evidence which demonstrates that English AGR weakness is observed in its reliance on the ‘do-support’ for its interrogatives. Further evidence is also supplied through the study of modal and auxiliary verbs.