1. Syntax IV
March 29, 2012

2. Weekday Update Syntax homework will be posted after class today
…due on Tuesday (April 3rd)
Next week, we will start working on the analysis of meaning:
Pragmatics + Semantics
Also note that the final exam for this course has been scheduled:
Thursday, April 19th, 12-2 pm
Murray Fraser Hall (MFH) 160

3. In Our Last Episode IP NP I’ the police I VP [+past] V’ PP V NP P’
shot Det N’ P NP
the N with rifles
terrorists
In this tree, the police are using the rifles to shoot the terrorists.
The PP is a modifier of the VP here, not a complement.
= it’s not required by the verb.

4. Quick Write Greatest Hits

5. Quick Write Greatest Hits

6. More Modifiers From the last Quick Write: IP NP I’ She I VP
[-past] V’ AdvP
V CP Deg Adv’
wants IP really Adv
I VP badly
to V NP
play tennis
In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “wants”.
(I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

7. More Modifiers IP NP I’ She I VP
[-past] V’
V CP
wants IP
I VP
to V NP AdvP
play tennis really badly
In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “play”.
(I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

8. An Earlier Quick Write

9. An Earlier Quick Write Note the following combination:
Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
*Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
And also this combination:
Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
*Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

10. An Earlier Quick Write

11. An Earlier Quick Write
It’s okay to move a PP to the front of the sentence:
Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
But you can’t move just the P to the end of the sentence:
*Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
Note that “up” behaves differently in the other sentences:
*Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.
Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
In the “bill” sentences, “up” is not a preposition, it’s a particle.
…and it’s okay to end a sentence with a particle.

12. Language Universals
All languages have phrases with heads and complements.
All languages have nouns and verbs.
All languages can exhibit recursion.
Linguists hypothesize:
All of this information is part of Universal Grammar (UG)
Children do not need to learn these aspects of grammar from their environment.
But: languages can differ syntactically within these universal limits.

13. Language Choices
One syntactic feature which differs between languages:
head-first vs. head-final
English is a head-first language
= the head of the phrase precedes any complements.
For example:
V’  V (NP) (PP)
N’  N (PP)
A’  A (PP)
P’  P (NP)
In general: X’  X (YP)

14. Language Choices Other languages are head-final Ex: Japanese
The head of the phrase in Japanese always follows its complements:
In general: X’  (YP) X
Example: P’  NP P
niwa-de
“garden in” = “in the garden”
N P
By the way: in languages like these, “prepositions” are called “post-positions”

15. Syntactic Typology
Sentences in head-final languages usually follow the pattern: subject - object - verb (SOV)
Japanese examples:
Taro-ga inu-o mitsuketa
Taro-subject marker dog-object marker found
“Taro found a dog.”
Inu-ga niwa-de asonde iru
dog-subject marker garden-in playing is
“The dog is playing in the garden.”

16. Syntactic Typology
There are six possible orders for subject, verb, and object in a sentence.
All six orders have been attested in at least one of the world’s languages.
44% of the world’s languages are SOV languages.
Japanese, Korean, Turkish
35% of the world’s languages are SVO languages.
English, French, Chinese
19% of the world’s languages are VSO languages.
Irish, Arabic, Welsh

17. Syntactic Typologies 2% of the world’s languages are VOS languages.
Aramaic, Hawaiian, Tagalog, Maori
OSV languages are very rare
Xavante, Jamamadi (spoken in Brazil)
OVS languages are the rarest of all
Guarijio (northwest Mexico), Hixkaryana (also Brazil)
Another OVS language: Klingon
Some languages have free word order
Dyirbal (spoken in Australia) (by about five people)

18. Scrambling! Dyirbal is a “scrambling” language
= free word-order, syntactically
Case-marking of nouns makes this possible…
“The man hit the woman.”
bangul jara-ngu balan djugumbil balgan
ERG1 man-ERG OBJ2 woman hit (SOV)
balan djugumbil bangul jara-ngu balgan
OBJ2 woman ERG1 man-ERG hit (OSV)
“The dingo took her baby.”
bangun ganibarra-gu budin bangun gudjarra
ERG2 dingo-ERG take GEN baby (SVO)

19. Yodish What sort of language does Yoda speak?
Some examples are (relatively) straightforward:
My home this is.
To Obi-Wan you listen.
In these sentences, the complement of the verb moves to the front of the sentence.
(= OSV)
The others are slightly different:
Help you I can.
Take you to him I will.
In these two, Yoda moves the whole VP to the front.

20. Wait…things move?
Movement rules can explain syntactic patterns in language that phrase structure rules alone cannot account for.
For instance: some sentences are systematically related to other sentences.
Declarative Interrogative
The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping?
The boy has slept. Has the boy slept?
The boy can sleep. Can the boy sleep?
The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep?
The boy did sleep. Did the boy sleep?
What’s the pattern?

21. What’s the Pattern?
Declarative sentences like “The boy is sleeping” can be generated with the usual syntactic rules. IP
NP I’
Det N’ I VP
the N is V’
boy V
sleeping
We get the interrogative sentence “Is the boy sleeping?” by inverting the order of the subject and the auxiliary.

22. Inversion CP C’
C IP
NP I’
Det N’ I VP
the N is V’
boy V
sleeping

23. Inversion CP C’
C IP
NP I’
Det N’ I VP
the N is V’
boy V
sleeping
Note: the auxiliary verb moves from one head slot to another.
Rule: move the I head to the C node.
This “inversion” rule creates a yes/no question.

24. Inversion Results CP C’ C IP is NP I’
[+Q] Det N’ I VP
the N t V’
boy V
sleeping
The movement leaves a “trace” (t) behind in the I slot.
The C slot has to be marked with a [+Q] (for “question”) to make this movement happen.
…like the I slot being marked for tense.

25. Transformations
The syntactic rules that we’ve seen so far are phrase structure rules:
NP  Det N’
P’  P NP
A rule that generates one kind of sentence from another sentence is called a transformational rule.
“Transformations” give us the questions for “free”…
so long as our phrase structure rules generate the corresponding declarative sentences.

26. A More Complex Case
Does our transformational rule work for this sentence?
The chicken crossed the road.
Maybe.
To create this question: “Did the chicken cross the road?”
…it is first necessary to add the auxiliary verb “do”.
= “Do” insertion
The chicken crossed the road. 
The chicken did cross the road. 
Did the chicken cross the road?
In English, it is not possible to invert non-auxiliary verbs.

27. Split-Levels
Syntactic phrase structure rules (“Merge”) create the Deep Structure of a sentence.
Transformation rules (“Move”) change the Deep Structure into the Surface Structure that we see in interrogative sentences.
Phonology analogy:
Underlying representation = Deep Structure
Surface representation = Surface Structure
In both cases, this is called a derivation.
and multiple rules can apply before the final product appears on the surface.

28. A More Complex Case
Does our transformational rule work for this sentence?
Bob said that the chicken crossed the road.
Maybe.
There are actually two options:
Did Bob say that the chicken crossed the road?
*Did Bob said that the chicken cross the road?
Yes/No questions can only be formed from the main (highest level) sentence.
They cannot be formed from an embedded sentence.
The Complementizer (“that”) fills the C slot and prevents an embedded auxiliary from moving up.

29. Wh Questions Here’s another relationship between sentences:
Declarative Interrogative
Bart kicked the ball.
What did Bart kick?
Lisa put the leash on the table.
Where did Lisa put the leash?
Marge sent a card to Selma.
Who did Marge send a card to?
These questions are known as “Wh-Questions”
why, who, where, when, what, how

30. Wh Question Rules
The formation of these questions is considerably more complex.
Step 1: Wh-substitution
Substitute impersonal NPs with “what”
Substitute personal NPs with “who”
Substitute location PPs with “where”
etc.
Examples:
Bart kicked the ball.  Bart kicked what?
Lisa put the leash on the table. 
Lisa put the leash where?

31. Wh Movement Rules
Step 2: Move (or insert) the auxiliary verb to the beginning of the sentence.
Bart kicked what?  Did Bart kick what?
Lisa put the leash where? 
Did Lisa put the leash where?
Step 3: Move the Wh word to the beginning of the sentence.
Did Bart kick what?  What did Bart kick?
Did Lisa put the leash where? 
Where did Lisa put the leash?

32. Wh-Movement CP
(Spec) C’
C IP
NP I’
Bart I VP
did V’
V NP
kick what

33. Wh-Movement CP
(Spec) C’
C IP
did NP I’
Bart I VP
t V’
V NP
kick what

34. Wh-Movement
The Wh- particle moves from a non-head position to another non-head position.
(so it doesn’t cross paths with move #1) CP
NP C’
What C IP
did NP I’
Bart I VP
t V’
V NP
kick t

35. Questions around the World
In other languages, questions can be formed by moving any verb (not just an auxiliary) to the front of the sentence.
Dutch:
Femke leest veel boeken.
“Femke reads many books.”
Q: Leest Femke veel boeken?
reads Femke many books
“Does Femke read many books?”

36. Wh non-movement
Some languages form Wh questions without moving anything.
Japanese:
Taro-ga nani-o mitsuketa-no?
Taro-subject what found-question marker
“What did Taro find?”
Swahili:
Ulipatia nani kitabu
you gave who a book
“Who did you give a book?”

37. Principles and Parameters
Language has universal features = principles
Nouns, verbs, etc.
Phrases with heads and complements.
Individual languages have options = parameters
Head-first or head-last?
Wh-movement or no Wh-movement?
Kids acquiring language get the universal principles for free;
it’s part of Universal Grammar (UG)
…but they have to figure out the “parameters” from what they hear in the world around them, as they grow up.