BBN-ANG-253 Advanced Syntax Lecture Course Autumn, 2014/15 Course Description Topic 1 Starting out: Event Structure, Aspect and the Simplest Verb Types recapitulation: the UTAH, X-bar Theory tense vs. aspect (lexical aspect vs. grammatical aspect) simple vs. complex event structure unaccusative verbs and constructions involving light verbs Reading: Newson et al. Ch 5: 1 Event Structure and Aspect – 2.2 Light verbs Topic 2 More complex verb types 1 ergative verbs transitive verbs and multiple light verb constructions Reading: Newson et al. Ch 5: 2.3 Ergative verbs – 2.4 Transitive verbs Topic 3 More complex verb types 2 intransitive verbs verbs with multiple complements phrasal verbs Reading: Newson et al. Ch 5: 2.5 Intransitive verbs – 2.7 Phrasal verbs

Topic 4 More complex verb types 3 verbs with clausal complements extending the analysis: aspectual auxiliaries Reading: Newson et al. Ch 5: 2.8 – Verbs with clausal complements – 3 Aspectual auxiliary verbs Topic 5 Modifiers in the VP VP-adverbs vs. sentential adverbs PP-modifiers Clausal modifiers verbs that do not fit in Reading: Newson et al. Ch 5: 4 Adverbs, PPs and clausal modifiers Topic 6 The Structure of IP tense, agreement, negation case assignment Reading: Newson et al. Ch 6 Inflection Phrases

Topic 7 The Structure of CP 1 clause types interrogative CPs: wh-movement, inversion Reading: Newson et al. Ch 7: 1 The structure of CP – 3.5 Subject questions Topic 8 The Structure of CP 2 wh-movement in relative clauses further types of fronting movement: topicalisation, focus- and negative fronting Reading: Newson et al. Ch 7: 4 Relative clauses – 6 Conclusion   Topic 9 The Structure of Non-finite Clauses 1 exceptional clauses and small clauses raising and control Reading: Newson et al. Ch 8 The syntax of non-finite clauses

Topic 10 The Structure of Non-finite Clauses 2 the gerund Topic 11 Summary/Revision Set text: Newson, M. et al. 2006. Basic English Syntax with Exercises. Bölcsész Konzorcium, ELTE. Ch 5-8

Event Structure, Aspect and the Simplest Verb Types 1 Event Structure: simple versus complex events Verbs in a sentence express an event which can be an action or state. 1 a The ship sank. b The pirates sank the ship. c e = e1 d e = e1 → e2 2 a Peter sent Mary flowers b e = e1 → e2 → e3 Simple events are represented by simpler VPs while more complex events by more complex VPs. Tense: relates an event at a particular point in time to the time of speaking. Aspect: describes time relations internal to an event.

2 Aspect: lexical and grammatical Lexical aspect (Aktionsart): internal to the meaning of the verb, which expresses an event with a natural endpoint. Grammatical aspect: encoded via syntactic means. 3 a The boy is eating an apple b The boy is standing in the corner Lexical and grammatical aspect in Hungarian: 4 a győz, dob, kap (morphologically simple verbs) b főz-megfőz, olvas-elolvas, takarít-kitakarít c János ’ment ’át az utcán, amikor meglátta Marit. d János átment az utcán.

3 The simplest verb types 3.1 Unaccusatives typically verbs of movement or location, taking one DP argument to which they assign a theme theta-role (with some of them a location argument, often optional, can also occur, expressed by a PP) 5 a a train arrived (on platform 6) b a rabbit sat in the corner they are grammatical in a there-construction (cf. raising verbs) 6 a there arrived a train on platform 6 b there sat a rabbit in the corner c *there sat the rabbit in the corner d a rabbit helplessly sat in the corner e *there helplessly sat a rabbit in the corner 7 a It seems that they have a problem. b They seem to have a problem. c There seems to be a problem.   they are grammatical in locative inversion constructions 8 a in the corner sat a rabbit b *on the cheek kissed Peter his mother c *in the fridge put the girl the ice cream

9 a in the corner there sat a rabbit b on platform 6 there arrived a train they cannot take cognate objects (cf. intransitives) 10 a *a train arrived an arrival b he smiled a wicked smile (11) VP VP   DP V’ DP V’ theme V PP V

3.2 Light verb constructions type (i) typically involves verbs like have, do, take, make, etc. and a noun which carries most of the semantic content of the construction; type (ii) involves e.g. make, let, get, etc. and a VP containing a noun and a verb; 12 a he took a bath b they had an argument 13 a he made the engine start b he let the bottle fall (cf. he made the bottle fall)

(14) vP vP   DP v’ DP v’ agent v DP v VP DP V’ V Note: with type one the structure is not straightforward. As it is, there is no thematic V head position, alternatively, if a thematic VP is projected, its head position remains empty.