1. Syntax
Lecture 12:
Extended VP

2. The traditional view of the verb
The traditional view of verbs is that they are predicates which take arguments.
This goes back to ancient Greek philosophy.
The verb is the semantic centre of the meaning of the sentence (proposition) and its arguments are those things that play a role in the event that it expresses:
John loves Mary.
Love(John, Mary)
This is the basis of the ‘thematic structure’ that is expressed by the VP.

3. Challenges to the tradition
Some events can be expressed by a combination of two verbs:
John made Bill leave

4. Challenges to the tradition
Some events can be expressed by a combination of two verbs:
John made Bill leave
We might think that this is the same as verbs which take a clause argument:
John thinks [Bill left]

5. Challenges to the tradition
Some events can be expressed by a combination of two verbs:
John made Bill leave
We might think that this is the same as verbs which take a clause argument:
John thinks [Bill left]
But here there really are two clauses, with two tenses.
In the first sentence, there is only one tense.

6. Challenges to the tradition
The complement of the causative verb make appears to be just a VP

7. Challenges to the tradition
The complement of the causative verb make appears to be just a VP
no inflection (no tense),
* John made Bill leaves
no complementiser (no force),
* John made that Bill leave

8. Causatives in other languages
Some languages can express this with a single compound verb:
Chichewa (Bantu)
Mtsikana anau-gw-ets -a mtsuko Mstikana agr -fall-make-asp waterpot “Mtsikana made the waterpot fall”
French

9. Causatives in other languages
Some languages express the causative with a morpheme on the verb:
Japanese
Hungarian
János gur-ít ot-ta a labdá-t János roll-cause-pst-3s. the ball-acc

10. English causative alternation
In English some verbs can be used as a causative or non-causative:
The sun made the ice melt
The sun melted the ice
Given that these two sentences mean the same thing, it seems that the first must be seen as a single clause with a single predicate.

11. Conclusion on causatives
Some predicates come in two parts:
Causative + main verb
The sun made the ice melt

12. Conclusion on causatives
Some predicates come in two parts:
Causative + main verb
The causative part
Adds the causative meaning
Introduces the causer argument
The sun made the ice melt

13. Conclusion on causatives
Some predicates come in two parts:
Causative + main verb
The causative part
Adds the causative meaning
Introduces the causer argument
The main verb part
Adds the thematic meaning
Introduces other argument (theme, etc.)
The sun made the ice melt

14. Other verbs
Other transitive verbs are not causative and therefore do not take part in the causative alternation:
The sun melted the ice
John hit Bill
The ice melted
* Bill hit

15. Passivisation
However, the passivisation of a transitive verb produces pretty much the same effect:
The sun melted the ice
John hit Bill
The ice melted
Bill was hit
In these cases:
What was the subject of the first is missing in the second
What was the object of the first is the subject of the second
Could this mean that all transitive verbs are complex?

16. The event structure of a verb
We can think of a verb as something which describes an event.
Events can be simple or complex: composed of number of subevents.
This structure is easy to see with causatives:
Event 1 (cause): the sun does something (= shine)
Event 2 (result): the ice melts

17. The event structure of an agentive verb
Many transitive verbs also describe complex events:
John hit Bill
John did something
(swung his fist, fired a gun, threw a stone, …)
Bill was hit (result)
The meaning of these transitive verbs is similar to the meaning of causative verbs
Perhaps this means that their syntax is similar.

18. The syntax of periphrastic causatives
John made the door close

19. The syntax of non-periphrastic causatives
John closed the door
This has the same meaning as the periphrastic causative
So it should have the same structure as it
There must be a causative verb
To introduce the causative meaning
To introduce the causer
This must be phonologically empty
The thematic verb moves
The abstract causative verb must be like the tense inflection – a bound morpheme

20. The syntax of transitive verbs
John hit Bill
This has the same event structure as a causative
Therefore, suppose it has the same syntactic structure as the causative
It has a phonologically empty agentive verb
Introducing the agent
This is a bound morpheme
So the thematic verb must move

21. The syntax of the passive
Bill was killed
The passive lacks an agent
So presumably it lacks an abstract agentive verb
But it does have an extra ‘passive’ morpheme
If we assume that this replaces the agentive verb, we explain why the agent goes missing
As there is no agent, the theme will move to subject
The passive morpheme is a bound morpheme, so the verb will move to support it
But it is overt, so the verb cannot move further
Therefore, a dummy auxiliary be is inserted to support the tense. be

22. Intransitive verbs Some intransitive verbs have theme arguments.
Bill arrived
As they have no agent, we don’t need the extra VP above them
The structure of the VPs they head seems to be identical to the lower VPs that we have been looking at
We call these unaccusative verbs

23. Intransitive verbs Other intransitive verbs have agent arguments:
Bill smiled
Therefore, we need the extra VP
We call these verbs unergative verbs
There is no object – but there is room for one
This accounts for why unergative verbs can appear with a cognate object, :
Bill smiled an evil smile
Unaccusative verbs can’t
* Bill arrived an untimely arrive

24. Conclusion The VP is more complex than tradition allows.
Most types of verb involve more than one VP:
The lower VP contains the main verb which carries the descriptive content
This introduces the internal arguments, such as the theme.
The upper VP carries the meaning associated with the outer arguments:
Causers or agents
The verb which heads this VP is usually phonologically null in English (though there is an overt causative verb – make)
Only unaccusative verbs (arrive), which don’t have causer or agent arguments, have just a simple VP.
Intransitive verbs with agents (unergatives – smile) have the extra VP, though it only usually contains the main verb
It can also contain a cognate object, however.