If I'm not mistaken *"Where did you move from Paris to?", while "Where did you move to from Paris?" as well as both "You moved from Paris to London" and "You moved to London from Paris"(at least with the proper context and intonation) seem okay. How does this contrast arise? (I'm mostly interested in an explanation in term of Chomskian generative grammar)
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6"Where did you move from Paris to" sounds OK to me.– brass tacksDec 2, 2018 at 1:00
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1Try a discourse "I moved from Nice to Paris, and then from Paris to (inaudible Tralfamadore)". "Where did you from Paris to?".– user6726Dec 2, 2018 at 2:02
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2I find "Where did you move from Paris to?" completely grammatical and normal (British English native speaker).– Colin FineDec 2, 2018 at 11:51
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1It looks OK. The prenuclear "where" is complement of the prep "to": "Where did you move from Paris to __?"– BillJDec 2, 2018 at 16:46
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2Perfectly cromulent sentence in my view.– ElesharDec 2, 2018 at 21:29
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1 Answer
The example is okay if you get the stress right. There is some tendency to put the main sentence stress on "Paris", taking the focus to be "Paris", but that gives a bad result:
*Where did you move from Paris to?
Actually, the focus is the object of "to" or the prepositional phrase "to where", and in that case, the main stress has to on the logical object of "to" or on what is left of the prepositional phrase after the question word has been fronted:
Where did you move from Paris to?
Where did you move from Paris to?
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4I'd say it's even OK with stress on Paris in a context where you know someone moved between a series of cities: "From London I moved to Paris..." "And where did you move from Paris to?"– TKRDec 3, 2018 at 2:25
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