CAS LX 522 Syntax I Episode 5 b

CAS LX 522 Syntax I Episode 5 b. Agree, head movement and the strength of features 5. 4

Feature classes n You may recall that we at one point talked about divide features into types; now’s the time it matters. n There are tense features. Like past, like present. There are case features. Like nom, like acc. There are person features. Like 1 st, like 2 nd. There are gender features. Like masculine, like feminine. n So, we can think of this as a feature category or feature type that has a value. n n [Gender: masculine] [Tense: past] [Person: 1 st] [Case: nom]

Agree T nodes have features of the tense type. Maybe past, maybe present. n Suppose that v has an uninterpretable feature of the tense type, but unvalued. n n n What we’re trying to model here is agreement. Agree In the configuration X[F: val] … Y[u. F: ] F checks and values u. F, resulting in X[F: val] … Y[u. F: val]

Unvalued features n The idea is that a lexical item might have an unvalued feature, which is uninterpretable as it stands and needs to be given a value in order to be interpretable. n n The statement of Agree on the previous slide is essentially saying just that, formally. This gives us two kinds of uninterpretable features (unvalued and regular-old uninterpretable privative features), and two ways to check them (valuing for unvalued features, checking under sisterhood for the other kind). n Unvalued [u. F: ]. Regular-old [u. F].

Pat ate lunch n n So, back to Pat ate lunch. T has a tense feature, e. g. , [T, past, …]. We need to make a connection between the tense feature on T and the tense morphology we see on the verb. Here’s how: n n Little v has an uninterpretable (unvalued) inflectional feature [u. Infl: ]. It’s “Infl” because we want to include tense, but also other kinds of features later on. But tense features can check and value unvalued Infl-type features.

Pat ate lunch. n Pat v eat lunch T [N, …] [u. N, u. Infl: , …] [V, u. N, …] [T, tense: past, …] Notice also that the two arguments of transitive eat are introduced by one [u. N] on V and one [u. N] on v. v. P T [tense: past, v T, u. N*, …] NP Pat v[u. Infl: ]+V VP eat <eat> NP lunch

Pat ate lunch. n Pat v eat lunch T [N, …] [u. N, u. Infl: , …] [V, u. N, …] [T, tense: past, …] T [T, u. N*, tense: past, … n Agree In the configuration X[F: val] … Y[u. F: ] F checks and values u. F, resulting in X[F: val] … Y[u. F: val] v. P T [tense: past, v T, u. N*, …] NP Pat v[u. Infl: past]+V VP eat <eat> NP lunch

Pat ate lunch. n n Pat v eat lunch T [N, …] [u. N, u. Infl: , …] [V, u. N, …] [T, tense: past, …] Last point, how does this come to be pronounced Pat ate lunch? T isn’t pronounced as anything. It was just a pure tense feature. The “past” pronunciation of eat is ate, so v+V is pronounced “ate” here. TP NP Pat T [T, u. N*, tense: past, … v. P T [tense: past, T, u. N*, …] <Pat> v v[u. Infl: past]+V eat VP <eat> NP lunch

Pat had been eating lunch n The auxiliary verbs have and be are used in forming the perfect and progressive, respectively, which are additional forms that a verb can take on. n Pat has eaten lunch. Pat is eating lunch. n n The generalization was that have and be each determine the form that the next verb/auxiliary takes. We have a means of explaining this now: have and be each have a [u. Infl: ] feature, like v does, and categories Perf and Prog can value [u. Infl: ] features.

Valuing [u Infl: ] n A concise statement of the things with [u. Infl: ] and the things that can value [u. Infl: ]: n n These have [u. Infl: ] features: n n v, M, Perf, Prog [u. Infl: ] features can be valued (via Agree) by: n n n (So far; there will be small revisions later…) Tense features (past, present) of T. -s or -ed. Perf feature of Perf. -en. Prog feature of Prog. -ing. M feature of M. -Ø (silent) Pat [past] ha-d be-en eat-ing lunch.

Pat had eaten lunch. n Pat [N, …] v [u. N, u. Infl: , …] have[Perf, u. Infl: , …] eat [V, u. N, …] lunch [N, …] T [T, tense: past, …] TP NP Pat T [T, u. N*, tense: past, …] T [tense: past, T, u. N*, …] Perf. P Perf v. P [Perf, u. Infl: past] had <Pat> v v[u. Infl: perf]+V eaten VP <eat> NP lunch

Pat was eating lunch. n Pat v be eat lunch T [N, …] [u. N, u. Infl: , …] [Prog, u. Infl: , …] [V, u. N, …] [T, tense: past, …] TP NP Pat T [tense: past, T, u. N*, …] T [T, u. N*, tense: past, …] Prog. P Prog v. P [Prog, u. Infl: past] was <Pat> v v[u. Infl: prog]+V eating VP <eat> NP lunch

Pat should eat lunch. n Pat v may eat lunch T [N, …] [u. N, u. Infl: , …] [M, u. Infl: , …] [V, u. N, …] [T, tense: past, …] TP NP Pat T [T, u. N*, tense: past, …] T [tense: past, T, u. N*, …] MP M v. P [M, u. Infl: past] might <Pat> v v[u. Infl: M]+V eat VP <eat> NP lunch

Merge, Adjoin, and …move? n The method by which we arrive at structures for sentences is… n n Take some lexical items (a “numeration” or “lexical array”) Combine any two of them (Merge) to make a new item. n n Attach one to another (Adjoin). n n Lexical items can have uninterpretable features. Merge can check these features. All of the uninterpretable features must be checked by the end of the derivation. Adjoin does not check features. Move stuff around. n What can you do? What can’t you do? Does it check features? Why do you do it? What’s really happening?

Move n There are two basic kinds of movement. We’ve seen examples of each. n One is head-movement, where a head moves up to join with another head. n n Examples: V moves to v, {Perf/Prog/M} moves to T The other is XP-movement, where a maximal projection (an XP) moves up to a specifier of a higher phrase. n Example: The subject moving to Spec. TP.

Forced movement (eviction? ) n We will assume that, like with Merge, Move occurs to “solve a problem. ” n n n We have two ways to check features so far. One of them is under sisterhood (Merge). The other is “at a distance” (Agree). n n n And the main problem our system has is unchecked uninterpretable features. So, Move must check features. The [u. N] feature of P, checked by Merging P and an NP. The [u. Infl: ] feature of v, valued by the [tense] feature of T. What kind of problem could Move solve? n Well, for one thing, it must not be able to solve the problem in place, without moving. Seems to need “closeness. ”

Agree and checking under sisterhood n Feature-checking (first version): c-selection n If X[F] and Y[u. F] are sisters, the [u. F] feature of Y is checked: Y[u. F]. n n P has a [u. N] feature. Merge it with an N(P), and the [u. N] feature of P is checked. Feature-checking (second version): inflection n If X[F: val] c-commands Y[u. F: ], the [u. F: ] feature of Y is valued and checked: Y[u. F: val]. n n T has a [tense: past] feature. Strictly speaking [tense: past] doesn’t look like it’s a valued [Infl] feature. We need to stipulate in addition a list of things that can value [Infl] features.

A more general Agree n Agree requires: n n And results in: n n n An uninterpretable feature A matching feature Line of sight (c-command) Valuing of unvalued features. Checking of the uninterpretable features. Our first version of checking (sisterhood) is a special case of this more general conception of Agree. n Except that we do want the [u. N] feature of P to be checked by directly Merging P and an NP—not “at a distance” like agreement.

Strong features n n n In order to check the [u. N] feature of P only through Merge (sisterhood), we will define a special kind of uninterpretable feature: the strong feature. A strong feature can only be checked when the matching feature is on an element that shares the same mother node. We will write strong features with a *: n P [P, u. N*] n C-selection features are strong.

A more general Agree n n Line of sight: c-command. Matching: n n Identical features match. [N] matches [u. N]. Some features match several things. [u. Infl: ] can match [tense: value], as well as the category features [Perf], [Prog], [M]. What if there are two options? We’ll see later that only the closest one participates in Agree. Valuing/Checking: n n n An unvalued feature is always uninterpretable. Valuing a feature will check it. A privative feature is simply checked when it matches.

A more general Agree n Other properties of Agree, relevant mainly after the midterm: n Strong features Agree first. n n Where a single head has more than one feature that must Agree, the strong ones go first. The system is lazy. n n n Agree always goes with the closest option it can find in order to check an uninterpretable feature. If Agree locates a matching feature on X for one uninterpretable feature, and X has a different feature that also matches, both features will be checked. Examples are coming up later, but for cross-referencing: these properties are important for subject agreement.

A more general Agree n If: n n n X has feature [F 1], Y has feature [F 2] X c-commands Y or Y c-commands X [F 1] and/or [F 2] are/is uninterpretable. [F 1] matches [F 2] X and Y are close enough, meaning: n n n There is no closer matching feature between X and Y. If [F 1] or [F 2] is strong, X and Y share the same mother node Then: n n Any unvalued feature ([F 1] or [F 2]) is valued. The uninterpretable feature(s) is/are checked.

Comments on Agree n That’s a general enough statement of Agree that it should work for the rest of the semester, even as we introduce new concepts. n It allows for several different configurations: n n [u. F]…[F] c-selection [F]…[u. F] Inflection [u. F]…[u. F] Case Strong features must be checked very locally. n n Merge can provide this locality. Move can also provide this locality. n n And that’s why we’re talking about it now. Strong features are what motivates movement.

What happens when V moves to v? n n When V moves to v, they combine in a way that we have been writing just as V+v. Let’s be more precise. In fact, we assume that V head-adjoins (adjoins, head-to-head) to v. This is the same sort of structure that Adjoin creates between maximal projections. n n In the structure, the v head is replaced by the v head with V adjoined. Adjunction does not change projection levels—v is still a minimal projection, still the head of v. P. But it is a complex head (it’s a v with a V adjoined to it). v v V eat v [u. V*, …] VP <V> NP

n n What happens when V moves to v? We should also consider what happens to the VP from which the V moved. It is still a VP, it must still have a head. n n n The features of the VP are the features of the head (recall for example, that checking the uninterpretable feature on the head is the same as checking the uninterpretable feature on the projection of the head). The VP is still a VP, its head is still a verb (with category feature [V]), and presumably all the rest of the features as well. We notate the original location of the V by writing <V> (standing for the “trace” left behind by the original V). But since <V> must still be a bundle of features, the same one that was there before movement, <V> is really just another copy (or, well, the original) of the verb. v v V eat v [u. V*, …] VP <V> NP

What happens when V moves to v? n Moral: “Head-movement” can be viewed as Copy+Adjoin. n n n A copy is made of V. The copy of V is adjoined to v. The original v is replaced by the syntactic object formed by Adjoining the copy of V to v. If v has a [u. V*] feature, this puts V close enough to v to check that feature. This is V why we move V. eat Note: This appears to make a change inside the object. Merge always happens at the root. However: Think about the root. It has the features of v, its head. It is a projection of v. There is a sense in which this is still affecting only the root node, it’s adjunction to its head. v v v [u. V*, …] VP <V> NP

What happens when V moves to v? n We always move V to v. n Reason: v always has a [u. V*] feature. n n But why wasn’t this checked when we Merged v and VP? (Like the [u. N*] feature of P is checked when we Merge P and NP…) The Hierarchy of Projections says that v > VP: When you finish VP, you Merge it with v. Only then do you Move and Merge with other things. The Ho. P takes priority. n When you Merge two nodes in order to satisfy the Ho. P, you don’t get to Agree. You have to move to the next step (Merge or Move). v v V eat v [u. V*, …] VP <V> NP

What happens when V moves to v? n n n That’s craziness, isn’t it? Now instead of one V, we have two identical copies. Why don’t we get Pat ate lunch? We need both copies (the higher one to check the feature, the lower one to head the original projection of V). But on the other hand, the verb was picked from the lexicon just once. A-P interface: Only the highest copy is pronounced. n n n This is just a precise way to spell out the idea that you “move it but leave a trace. ” Highest copy = the one that is not c-commanded by another copy. A head V adjoined to another head v c-commands the same nodes that v did. n This is a stipulation, but if we define c-command in a more complicated way, it comes to this. A general property of adjuncts is that they are “just as high” in the tree as the thing they adjoined to, so they “see” (ccommand) the same parts of the structure as the thing they adjoined to. v v V eat v [u. V*, …] VP <V> NP

A note on node labels n A node is labeled as a maximal projection (XP) if there are no more strong features left to check. Notice that v has [u. Infl: ] even when we’re finished with it and Merge it with the next head up (M, Perf, Prog, Neg, or T). But we still want there to be a v. P. n C-selection features (like the [u. N*] feature(s) of V, or the [u. N*] feature of P) are always strong. n

Movement of the subject n We’ve now looked at the details of why we do head movement: n n V moves to v because v has a [u. V*] feature. The other kind of movement we’ve seen is movement of the subject, from Specv. P to Spec. TP. n This will be handled the same way: T has a [u. N*] feature (always). Moving the subject (making a copy and Merging it with T) put the N feature of the subject close enough to T for the [u. N*] feature to be checked. n As for why you don’t satisfy the [u. V*] feature of v the same way, by moving VP into Specv. P, we could speculate, but there’s no particularly satisfying answer. We’ll set that aside.

Auxiliaries moving to T n One last case, that introduces a wrinkle. n n n Notice: n n n I do not eat green eggs and ham. I have not eaten green eggs and ham. I have not been eating green eggs and ham. I would not have been eating green eggs and ham. There is a set of things that move to T. Auxiliaries: have, be, modals. Main verbs do not move to T. Only the top auxiliary moves to T. Movement is driven by strong features.

Auxiliaries moving to T Auxiliaries: have, be, modals. n The top auxiliary moves to T. n Main verbs do not move to T. n Auxiliaries must be differentiated from main verbs. n Thus: They have the feature [Aux] n n n “they have the property of being auxiliaries” Movement is driven by a strong feature. [u. Aux*] on T? No. That does not work. n [u. T*] on Aux? No. That would not be promising. n

Auxiliaries moving to T n n n n Auxiliaries: have, be, modals. The top auxiliary moves to T. Main verbs do not move to T. Auxiliaries have a [u. Infl: ] feature, valued by the next thing up. The topmost auxiliary has its [u. Infl: ] feature valued by T. The topmost auxiliary is the only auxiliary that moves to T. An auxiliary whose [u. Infl: ] feature is valued by T will move to T. Movement is driven by strong features.

Auxiliaries moving to T n n n Auxiliaries: have, be, modals. The top auxiliary moves to T. Main verbs do not move to T. n n n An auxiliary whose [u. Infl: ] feature is valued by T will move to T. Movement is driven by strong features. It appears that we need to say this: n n If a head has the feature [Aux], and If that head’s [u. Infl: ] feature is valued by T, Then the feature is valued as strong. The auxiliary must move to T to be checked. n n n T[tense: pres] … be[Aux, u. Infl: ] T[tense: pres] … be[Aux, u. Infl: pres*] T[tense: pres]+be[Aux, u. Infl: pres*] … < be >

French vs. English n In English, adverbs cannot come between the verb and the object. n n n In French it’s the other way around. n n n *Pat eats often apples. Pat often eats apples. Jean mange souvent des pommes. Jean eats often of. the apples ‘Jean often eats apples. ’ *Jean souvent mange des pommes. If we suppose that the basic structures are the same, why might that be?

French vs. English n Similarly, while only auxiliaries in English show up before negation (not)… n n n John does not love Mary. John has not eaten apples. …all verbs seem to show up before negation (pas) in French: n n Jean (n’)aime pas Marie. Jean (ne) loves not Marie ‘Jean doesn’t love Marie. ’ Jean (n’)a pas mangé des pommes. Jean (ne)has not eaten of. the apples ‘Jean didn’t eat apples. ’

V raises to T in French n What it looks like is that both V and auxiliaries raise to T in French. n This is a parametric difference between English and French. A kid’s task is to English determine whether V French moves to T and whether auxiliaries move to T. n T values [u. Infl: ] on Aux T values [u. Infl: ] on v Strong Weak Strong

Jean (n’) appelle pas Marie n First, build the v. P just as in English. n Merge téléphone and Marie to form the VP, Merge v and VP to satisfy the Ho. P, move V to adjoin to v to check v’s [u. V*] feature, Merge Jean and v. T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] Neg pas v. P NP Jean [N] V appelle [V] v v VP vagent <V> [v, u. N*, u. V*, u. Infl: ] NP Marie [N]

Jean (n’) appelle pas Marie n Merge Neg with v. P to form Neg. P (following the Ho. P). T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] Neg pas Neg. P v. P NP Jean V appelle v v VP vagent <V> [v, u. N*, u. V*, u. Infl: ] NP Marie

Jean (n’) appelle pas Marie n n Merge T with Neg. P to form T (again, following the Ho. P). Now T with its [tense: pres] feature c-commands v and its [u. Infl: ] feature. They Match. But in French, when [u. Infl: ] on v is valued by T it is strong. So… T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] Neg. P Neg pas v. P NP Jean V appelle v v VP vagent <V> [v, u. N*, u. V*, u. Infl: pres*] NP Marie

Jean (n’) appelle pas Marie n v has to move to T. Notice that at this point v has V adjoined to it. You can’t take them apart. The whole complex head moves to T. T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] Neg. P T v V appelle T v [u. Infl: pres*] Neg pas NP Jean v. P v <v> VP <V> NP Marie

Jean (n’) appelle pas Marie n And then, we move the subject up to Spec. TP to check the final uninterpretable (strong) feature of T, [ u. N*]. TP T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] NP Jean Neg. P T v V appelle T v [u. Infl: pres*] v. P Neg pas v <Jean> So, French is just like English, except that even v moves to T. <v> VP <V> NP Marie

Swedish n Looking at Swedish, we can see that not only do languages vary on whether they raise main verbs to T, languages also vary on whether they raise auxiliaries to T: n n n …om hon inte har köpt boken whether she not has bougt book-the ‘…whether she hasn’t bought the book. ’ …om hon inte köpte boken whether she not bought book-the ‘…whether she didn’t buy the book. ’ So both parameters can vary. n Remember the light box: By saying these were parameters, we predicted that we would find these languages.

Typology of verb/aux raising n Interestingly, there don’t seem to be languages that raise main verbs but not auxiliaries. n n n This double-binary distinction predicts there would be. It overgenerates a bit. T values [u. Infl: ] on Aux T values [u. Infl: ] on v This is a pattern that we would like to explain someday, another mystery about Aux to file away. English Strong Weak French Strong Sorry, we won’t have any satisfying explanation for this gap this semester. Swedish Weak Unattested Weak Strong n

Irish n In Irish, the basic word order is VSO (other languages have this property too, e. g. , Arabic) n n Phóg Máire an lucharachán. kissed Mary the leprechaun ‘Mary kissed the leprechaun. ’ We distinguish SVO from SOV by supposing that the head-complement order can vary from language to language (heads precede complements in English, heads follow complements in Japanese). We may also be able to distinguish other languages (OVS, VOS) by a parameter of specifier order. But no combination of these two parameters can give us VSO.

Irish n But look at auxiliary verbs in Irish: n Tá Máire ag-pógáil an lucharachán. Is Mary ing-kiss the leprechaun ‘Mary is kissing the leprechaun. ’ n We find that if an auxiliary occupies the verb slot at the beginning of the sentence, the main verb appears between the subject and verb: Aux S V O. n What does this suggest about n n The head-parameter setting in Irish? How VSO order arises?

SVO to VSO n n Irish appears to be essentially an SVO language, like French. Verbs and auxiliaries raise past the subject to yield VSO. We can analyze the Irish pattern as being minimally different from our existing analysis of French— just one difference, which we hypothesize is another parametric difference between languages. V and Aux both raise to T (when tense values the [u. Infl: ] feature of either one, [u. Infl: ] is strong) in Irish, just as in French.

French vs. Irish n Remember this step in the French derivation before? n n I’ve omitted negation to make it simpler. What if we stopped here? n n n In French it would crash (why? ). But what if it didn’t crash in Irish? What would have to be different? T [tense: pres, T, u. N*, …] v. P T v V appelle T NP Jean v [u. Infl: pres*] v <v> VP <V> NP Marie

Parametric differences n We could analyze Irish as being just like French except without the strong [u. N*] feature on T. n n Without that feature, the subject doesn’t need to move to Spec. TP. The order would be VSO, or Aux. SVO. So, languages can vary in, at least: n n n Head-complement order (Head-specifier order) Whether [u. Infl: ] on Aux is strong or weak when valued by T Whether [u. Infl: ] on v is strong or weak when valued by T Whether T has a [u. N*] feature or not