The Ubiquity of Smuggling in Syntax

In 2005, I coined the term smuggling (‘A Smuggling Approach to the Passive in English’. Syntax 8, 81-120.)

The Ubiquity of Smuggling in Syntax (.pdf version)

What is amazing, and it has taken me 20 years to realize this, is how ubiquitous smuggling is in English and cross-linguistically. Smuggling derivations seem to pop up in every corner of English grammar. Smuggling might turn out to be as significant for syntactic theory as remnant movement or even successive cyclic movement (two other kinds of derivations). And there are more papers on the topic coming out every year.

In the list below, I give some examples of analyses where smuggling has been proposed in English and cross-linguistically. I also indicate a few areas that could be investigated further.

How can one identify a construction where smuggling may play a role? What are the telltale cues that lead a researcher down the smuggling path? The typical configuration where smuggling is found is where:

(a) the external Merge position of DP1 c-commands the external Merge position of DP2,

(b) at Spell-Out, DP2 c-commands DP1,

(c) the positions of DP1 and DP2 at Spell-Out are A-positions. 

Since by locality considerations, it is impossible for DP2 to undergo A-movement over DP1, DP2 must have been smuggled over DP1 by movement of a larger constituent (e.g., VP or PartP). Not all cases of smuggling fit into this model, but it covers quite a few of them.

As can be seen from the list below, smuggling has most often been used as a tool for understanding (a) voice and argument structure alternations and (b) various kinds of inversion. There have been very few attempts to apply smuggling in A’-movement, so the area remains mostly unexplored.

I. Argument Structure

1. Passives

(Collins 2005b, 2024a, Collins and Blümel 2025, Ndapo 2025, Snyder and Hyams 2015, Sulemana 2024, Roberts 2024)

2. Subject-to-Subject Raising

(Collins 2005a, Koopman 2021)

3. Subject Control

(Belletti and Rizzi 2012b)

4. Middles

(Gotah 2024)

5. Dative Alternation

(Collins 2021, Collins 2024a, Newman 2024, Stegovec 2024, Thoms 2024, Roberts 2010, 2019)

6. Psych-Verbs

(Belletti 2021, Belletti and Rizzi 2012a)

7. -able Constructions

(Ishizuka and Koopman 2014, 2026)

8. Nominalizations (with by-phrase)

(to be investigated)

9. Causatives

(Belletti 2021, Kayne 2005)

II. Inversion

10. Quotative Inversion

(Collins 2003, Storment 2025b, 2025c)

11. so-Inversion

(to be investigated)

12. as-Inversion (‘…as said John.’)

(to be investigated)

13. Locative Inversion

(Storment 2025b)

14. Inverse Copular Constructions

(Storment 2025a, 2025b)

15. Presentatives (‘Here comes John.’)

(to be investigated)

16. Existential-There Constructions

(Storment 2025b)

17. Subject-Object Inversion (Bantu)

(Shlonsky 2024)

III. A’-Movement

18. Tough-Movement

(Boskovic 2021, Hicks 2009, 2017)

19. Argument-Adjunct Asymmetry

(Collins 2019)

20. Parasitic Gaps

(Seguin and Thoms 2025)

21. Partial wh-Movement

(Sato 2024)

IV. Miscellaneous

22. Measure Phrases

(Corver 2021)

23. Adverb vs. PP Word Order

(Belletti and Rizzi 2012a, Bianchi 2021)

24. Heavy NP Shift

(Collins 2024b, Den Dikken 1995)

References:

Belletti, Adriana. 2021. Ways of Smuggling in Syntactic Derivations. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Belletti, Adriana and Chris Collins. 2021. Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Belletti, Adriana, and Luigi Rizzi. 2012a. Moving Verbal Chunks in the Low Functional Field. In Laura Burgè, Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro, and Cecilia Poletto (eds.), Functional Heads: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, vol. 7, 129–137. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Belletti, Adriana and Luigi Rizzi. 2012b. Ways of Avoiding Intervention: Some Thoughts on the Development of Object Relatives, Passive and Control. In Massimo Piattelli-Palmirini and Robert Berwick (eds.), Rich Languages from Poor Inputs. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Bianchi, Valentina. 2021. Punctual Time Adverbials in Italian. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Boskovic, Zeljko. 2021. On Smuggling, the Freezing Ban, Labels and Tough-Constructions. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Collins, Chris. 2003. The Distribution of Particle Verbs in Quotative Inversion. Manuscript, Cornell University. (https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-distribution-of-particles-in.html)

Collins, Chris. 2005a. A Smuggling Approach to Raising in English. Linguistic Inquiry 36, 289–298.

Collins, Chris. 2005b. A Smuggling Approach to the Passive in English. Syntax 8, 81-120.(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-smuggling-approach-to-passive-in.html)

Collins, Chris. 2021. A Smuggling Approach to the Dative Alternation. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Collins, Chris. 2024a. Principles of Argument Structure: A Merge-Based Approach. MIT Press, Cambridge.

Collins, Chris. 2024b. A Smuggling Approach to Heavy XP Shift. Ms., NYU.(https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-smuggling-approach-to-hxps.html)

Collins, Chris and Andreas Blümel. 2025. Smuggling and Labeling Theory. Biolinguistics 19. (https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/17229)

Corver, Norbert. 2021. On Measure Phrase Alternation and Smuggling. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Den Dikken, Marcel. 1995. Extraposition as Intraposition, and the Syntax of English Tag Questions. Ms., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/HIL.

Gotah, Selikem. 2024. Deriving Ewe (Tongugbe) nya-Constructions. Linguistic Variation 25, 201-224.

Hicks, Glyn. 2009. Tough-Constructions and Their Derivation. Linguistic Inquiry 40, 535-566.

Hicks, Glyn. 2017. Tough-Movement. In Martin Everaert and Henk C. van Riemsdijk (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition. John Wiley and Sons.

Ishizuka, Tomoko and Hilda Koopman. 2014. On the Importance of Being Silent or Pronounced: English -able and Japanese -rare Potentials Compared. Poster for GLOW 37, Brussels.

Ishizuka, Tomoko and Hilda Koopman. 2026. On the Identity of -rare in Passives and Potentials in Japanese. Ms., Aoyama Gakuin University and UCLA.

Kayne, Richard S. 2005. Prepositions as probes. In Movement and Silence, 33–55. Oxford University Press.

Koopman, Hilda. 2021. On the Syntax of the can’t seem Construction in English. In Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in Syntax. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Ndapo, Olivia. 2025. Oshigandjera (Oshiwambo) Passive: Projecting the Implicit Argument. Ms., NYU. (https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/009604)

Newman, Elise. 2024. The Order of Operations and A/A’-Interactions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 42, 1623-1676.

Roberts, Ian. 2010. Agreement and Head Movement: Clitics, Incorporation and Defective Goals. MIT Press, Cambridge.

Roberts, Ian. 2019. Parameter Hierarchies and Universal Grammar. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Roberts, Ian. 2024. Generalised Dynamic Asymmetry and Smuggling Derivations. In Mateo Greco and Davide Mocci (eds.), A Cartesian Dream: A Geometrical Account of Syntax. Lulu.

Sato, Yosuke. 2024. Partial wh-Movement in Indonesian, Criterial Freezing, and Sub-Extraction. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 69, 63-89.

Seguin, Luisa and Gary Thoms. 2025. Reconciling ATB and Parasitic Gaps: A Smuggling Analysis of P-Mismatches in Italian. In Lauren Clemens, Vera Gribanova, and Gregory Scontras (eds.), Essays in Honor of Maria Polinsky. 

Shlonsky, Ur. 2024. From Bantu subject-object reversal to inverted copular sentences: How ‘low’ focalization and smuggling circumvent Relativized Minimality violations. In Giuliano Bocci, Daniele Botteri, Claudia Manetti and Vincenzo Moscati (eds.), Rich Descriptions and Simple Explanations in Language Structure and Acquisition. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Snyder, William and Nina Hyams. 2015. Minimality Effects in Children’s Passives. In Elisa Di Domenico, Cornelia Hamann, and Simona Matteini (eds.), Structures, Strategies and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Adriana Belletti, 343– 368. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

Stegovec, Adrian. 2024. The Third Way: Object Reordering as Ambiguous Labeling Resolution. The Linguistic Review 41, 187-223.

Storment, John David. 2024. Quotative Inversion as Smuggling: Evidence from Setswana and English. Presented May 3, 2024 at the 55th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Montreal, Québec.

Storment, John David. 2025a. Predicate Nominals in Tshila. Linguistic Variation 25, 375-416.

Storment, John David. 2025b. Projecting (Your) Voice: A Theory of Inversion and Circumvention. Doctoral dissertation, Stony Brook, New York.

Storment, John David. 2025c. Quotative Inversion as Smuggling: Evidence from Setswana and English. Ms., SUNY Stony Brook. (https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/009441)

Sulemana, Abdul-Razak. 2024. Passive without Morphology: A Case for Implicit Arguments. Linguistic Variation 25, 168-200.

Thoms, Gary. 2024. Reassessing Oehrle Effects: Evidence from Scottish Gaelic. In Andrew Carnie, Diane Ohala, Dee Hunter, Samantha Prins, Michael Hammond and Luis Irizarry (eds.), Foundational Approaches to Celtic Linguistics, 141-181. Language Science Press, Berlin.