Revision ADVANCED SYNTAX TRACE THEORY Movements leave

Revision ADVANCED SYNTAX

TRACE THEORY Movements leave behind a phonologically null trace in all their extraction sites

TRACE THEORY Motivation Structural Preservation Movements The don’t alter structure Projection Principle Structures are founded on lexical properties So movements don’t alter lexical properties

TRACE THEORY Evidence Wanna contraction Who 1 do you want to meet t 1 Who 1 do you want t 1 to smile (wanna) (*wanna) Doubling ci alo visto ci? (Italian dialect) whom has-he seen whom “who has he seen? ” Resumptive My Pronouns brother, he likes to sing

TRACE THEORY 1) In which of the following would we expect ‘wanna’ contraction to be possible? A) B) C) D) I don’t want John to leave where do you want to go? who do you want to help you? John, I don’t want to win

CONSTRAINTS Unconstrained movement is too powerful the need for constraints Constraints A-over-A principle An XP cannot move out of an XP Not empirically accurate Island constraints Wh-Island constraint Complex DP Island Sentential Subject Island Coordinate Structure Island What explains Islands?

CONSTRAINTS Constraints Subjacency Reduced Islands down to one constraint Only one bounding node can be crossed by a single movement Bounding nodes = IP and DP Long distance movement can be achieved by a series of short movements [IP He 1 seems [IP t 1 to have been believed [IP t 1 to [VP t 1 know Bill]]]]

CONSTRAINTS Constraints Head A Movement Constraint head can only move to the nearest head position More restrictive than subjacency But both restrict the length of movements

CONSTRAINTS Constraints Relativised An Minimality element of type X can only move to the nearest type X position

CONSTRAINTS 2) Which of the following structures involves a violation of Subjacency: A) B) C) D) [CP wh 1 [IP. . . [CP t 1 [IP. . . t 1 ]]]]]] [CP wh 1 [IP. . . [CP t 1 [IP. . . [DP. . . t 1 ]]]]] [CP [IP DP 1. . . [CP [IP t 1. . . [VP t 1 ]]]]] [CP wh 1 [IP t 1. . . [CP [IP t 1. . . [VP t 1 ]]]]]

CASE THEORY We distinguish Morphological The case form a nominal element takes Abstract Case A property that a nominal has because it occupies a certain position Case This may or may not effect its morphological case theory is about Abstract Case

CASE THEORY Case is assigned by certain ‘governors’ to certain positions Finite I governs nominative Case and assigns it to its specifier P governs accusative Case and assigns it to its complement Agentive V governs accusative Case and assigns it to the specifier of its complement (the object) Complementiser for governs accusative Case and assigns it to the specifier of its complement (the subject)

CASE THEORY

CASE THEORY The Case Filter All overt DPs must sit in Case positions * the observation John * very fond John * tried [John to leave] (of John) (tried [to leave]) Nouns, adjectives and non-finite inflection do not assign Case Exceptional Verbs Assign Case to the subject of their infinitival arguments I believe [him to be rich]

CASE THEORY Case and Movement A DP in a Caseless position has to move to a Case position in order to satisfy the Case Filter * it was seen Mary 1 was seen t 1 It seems [John is rich] * it seems [John to be rich] John 1 seems [ t 1 to be rich] Therefore Case Theory applies to S-structure, not to D-structure

CASE THEORY 3) I Concerning the DP John in the following expect John to behave A) B) C) D) it gets accusative Case from the verb expect it gets accusative Case from the inflection it gets nominative Case from the inflection it is in a Caseless position

DOUBLE OBJECTS AND DATIVES The double object construction Two abstract verbs Agentive Goal Two Case assigners Only agent moves Verb moves to support both abstract verbs So is in front of both objects

DOUBLE OBJECTS AND DATIVES Dative Construction One abstract verb, one preposition Two Case assigners Only the agent moves Verb moves to support abstract verb Ends up in front of two internal arguments

DOUBLE OBJECTS AND DATIVES Some claim that one of these constructions derives from the other Most probably the double object derives from the dative But the two constructions have slightly different semantic properties The goal of the DO must be a recipient *I sent London a letter (I sent a letter to London) The goal of the dative cannot be an inaliable possessor *I gave a new engine to the car (I gave the car a new engine)

DOUBLE OBJECTS AND DATIVES 4) Where does theme in the dative construction get its Case from? A) B) C) D) the preposition to the abstract ‘goal’ verb the abstract ‘agentive’ verb the finite inflection

PREPOSITIONAL AND PHRASAL VERBS Prepositional verbs take a PP argument in complement position The preposition assigns Case to its object The verb moves to support the abstract verb

PREPOSITIONAL AND PHRASAL VERBS The preposition may optionally incorporate into the verb The verb and preposition move to support the abstract verb The preposition cannot assign Case to its complement So this must move to the specifier of VP The abstract verb assigns it Case This is why prepositional verbs can passivise The chimney was looked up

PREPOSITIONAL AND PHRASAL VERBS A phrasal verb takes a PP complement and has a theme in specifier position The verb moves to support the abstract verb The preposition is stranded abstract verb assigns Case to theme

PREPOSITIONAL AND PHRASAL VERBS The preposition can optionally incorporate into the verb They move to support the abstract verb The preposition is in front of theme The He looked up the word theme still gets Case from the abstract verb

PREPOSITIONAL AND PHRASAL VERBS 5) Which of the following involves a phrasal verb A) B) C) D) the bed was slept in the police looked into the matter the customers were put right off he went right into the house

CLAUSAL ARGUMENTS Clausal arguments of verbs occupy theme position Specifier of the contentful verb Clausal arguments are mostly CPs Finite clauses Infinitives with for complementisers Control clauses (with PRO subjects)

CLAUSAL ARGUMENTS Exceptional clauses have no CP but are just IPs CP is a barrier to Case assignment So only exceptional clauses allow their subjects to be Case marked from outside The accusative Case is assigned by the abstract verb associated with the exceptional verb

CLAUSAL ARGUMENTS Raising clauses are like exceptional clauses But as there is no abstract verb to assign Case, the subject has to raise

CLAUSAL ARGUMENTS 6) In which of the following is the embedded clause not a CP? A) B) C) D) he tried [to leave] it seems [he left] [for him to leave] would be nice he seems [to have left]

TENSE AND NEGATION Tense in English is a null morpheme of the category ‘v’ (little v) It always follows I He may - pres smile Verb Him to - anaphoric smile Verb He moves to support tense –ed - past smile Verb moves to support tense and inflection

TENSE AND NEGATION Negation (not) is best analysed as an adverbial rather than a head It has a range of positions within the little v part of sentence structure Above It VP and below I He may (not) have (not) been (not) seen has no effect on auxiliary selection He has seen Bill He has not seen Bill

TENSE AND NEGATION Two restrictions on negation It cannot precede I It cannot follow V Therefore in the presence of negation, the verb cannot move to I as negation must be between them In this case, do is inserted to support I * he smile 1 -ed not t 1 * he not smile 1 -ed t 1 He did not smile

TENSE AND NEGATION 7) In which of the following will the tense morpheme be supported by the inserted auxiliary have? A) B) C) D) he may - -en go him to - -ing go he –ed - go we - - go

ADVERBIALS VP adverbials adjoin to VP and so are closer to the verb than sentential adverbials Sentential adverbials adjoin to the phrase headed by tense (little v. P) or to I’ and so are further from the verb He will certainly quickly hide the evidence * he will quickly certainly hide the evidence

ADVERBIALS Although VP adverbials adjoin to VP, they are forced to adjoin to I’ when the verb moves to I Adverbials cannot immediately follow the verb VP adverbials prefer to be adjoined to VP

ADVERBIALS 8) In which of the following is the adverbial not adjoined to I’? A) B) C) D) he really should see a doctor she quickly drank the coffee they certainly saw the accident he is obviously going to phone the police

THE GERUND There are four types of gerund Acc-ing PRO-ing Poss-ing Ing-of We him writing a letter PRO writing a letter his writing of the letter analysed only the last two

THE GERUND ‘-ing’ nominalises verbs by Taking a VP complement Projecting an NP It is a bound morpheme, so the verb moves to support it Which type of VP it takes as its complement determines which type of gerund we get

THE GERUND -ing-of -ing takes the content VP as its complement There is no agentive verb to assign theme Case So Any A of is inserted determiner is possible possessor is possible with a possessive determiner

THE GERUND Poss-ing takes the full thematic VP as a complement So there is an agentive verb And an agent The theme gets Case from the agentive verb So no of insertion The agent needs Case So no other determiner than the possessive is possible

THE GERUND 9) which gerund can be modified by an adjective? A) B) C) D) poss-ing acc-ing ing-of PRO-ing

LEFT PERIPHERY Three movements make use of the front of the clause Topicalisation These Focus (it paintings 1, I really like t 1 fronting was) JOHN 1 I saw t 1 Negative fronting Nothing 1 could I see t 1

LEFT PERIPHERY Topicalisaton Adjoins the topic to the highest possible clausal projection CP in main clauses Not CP in embedded clauses Adjunction So is recursive there can be more than one topic

LEFT PERIPHERY Focus fronting Focus is moved to specifier of a functional projection between C and IP There can only be one focus This projection must be like IP as it is the complement of the complementiser But it isn’t IP as its complement is IP

LEFT PERIPHERY Negative The fronting fronted negative moves to the same position as the focus But this makes the clause negative So there must be a head of i. P for the negative to agree with So the auxiliary inverts

LEFT PERIPHERY 10) In a main clause with both a topic and a fronted focus, what will their order be? A) B) C) D) the topic will precede the focus will precede the topic they can be placed in any order the sentence will be ungrammatical as they occupy the same position

PRONOUNS Binding theory Principle A An anaphor must be bound in its smallest binding domain John 1 likes himself 1 * Mary 1 likes himself 2 * John 1’s mother likes himself 1 * John 1 thinks Mary likes himself 1 Anaphor e. g. Himself Bound = coindexed with and ccommanded by something C-command = an element c-commands its sister and everything inside its sister Binding domain = a category with a subject

PRONOUNS Binding theory Principle B A pronominal must be free in its smallest binding domain * John 1 likes him 1 Mary 1 likes him 2 John 1’s mother likes him 1 John 1 thinks Mary likes him 1 Pronominal = Him Free = not bound

PRONOUNS Reflexivity Principle A A reflexive marked verb must be reflexive * Mary likes himself Principle B A reflexive verb must be reflexive marked * John 1 likes him 1 Reflexive marking = morphologically marked by reflexive morpheme E. g. -self Reflexive verb = a verb with two or more arguments referring to the same thing E. g. He shaved himself

PRONOUNS 11) According to Binding theory, which of the following sentences is ungrammatical because the anaphor is not bound? A) B) C) D) * John 1 thinks Mary likes himself 1 * John 1 saw Mary’s picture of himself 1 * John 1 saw him 1 * John 1’s mother saw himself 1

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR Universal grammar is the idea that there are grammatical principles which underlie all human languages Arguments There are language universals Human languages are translatable The species specificity argument The poverty of the stimulus argument The fact of child language acquisition

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR Principles and Parameters theory Principles = underlying universals (not learned) Parameters = variable parts of the grammar which allow languages to differ and which must be acquired

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR 12) which of the following X-bar statements constitutes a parameter setting? A) B) C) D) A phrase has a head The mother of the specifier is XP The head precedes its complement The sister of the complement is the head

ANSWERS Answers will be given in the lecture