1. Syntax V November 26, 2010

2. Weekday Update Syntax homework will be posted after class today …due next Wednesday (December 1st) On Monday, we will: wrap up the syntax lectures work on a few more practice syntax exercises. Afterwards, we’ll conclude the term with an analysis of meaning: Pragmatics + Semantics

3. There is no “I” in “verb” In English, the I slot may be explicitly filled with auxiliary verbs: be {am, are, is, was, were} have {has, had} Verbs following auxiliaries bear affixes marking them for tense {am going, has gone} or voice {is gone}. Modals are a special kind of auxiliary verb: will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, (do/did) Verbs following modals are always in their root (infinitive) form. {I must go; I could go; etc.}

4. Splitting Syntactic Hairs Regarding the confusion between adverbs and degree words: Degree words are a sub-category of adverbs. They can modify adjectives and prepositions, but not verbs. The light sabre is quite red. *The Emperor quite frowns. In order to avoid any future confusion on this score: I’ll consider these two terms to be interchangeable on the homework (and final).

5. In Our Last Episode… We learned that it is possible to create infinitely long sentences by embedding complementizer clauses within complementizer clauses… John said [that Mary thought [that Robin knew [that Angela hoped [that Quinton wished [that Bronwen believed that…]]]]] VP  V CPV CP CP  C IPV C IP IP  NP VPV C NP VP VP  V CPV C NP V CP etc.

6. IP NPI’ MargeIVP [-past]V’CP VC’ thinksCIP thatNPI’ Homer IVP [+past]V’ VNP atethe cake CP Example matrix clause embedded clause

7. Infinite Recursion, part 3 There is one other (very boring) way to produce inifinitely long sentences in language: I like baseball and basketball and hockey and football and soccer and rugby and cricket and ultimate frisbee and polo and lacrosse…. Sentences like this take advantage of the syntactic phenomenon of coordination. Coordination combines phrases or words of the same type with a conjunction (and, but, or…) to create a phrase or word of the same type. General coordination rule: X n  X n Con X n (where X n = X, X’ or XP)

8. Coordination Examples NP  NP and NP NP  The fat man and the little boy VP  VP or VP VP  fish or cut bait IP  IP but IP IP  Ringo plays drums but Paul plays bass. Coordination of individual words works the same way: P  P and P She went [[above] P and [beyond] P ] P the call of duty.

9. Ambiguity Coordination can lead to a very simple kind of structural ambiguity.  I like green eggs and ham. Interpretation #1: just the eggs are green. I like [[green eggs] NP and [ham] NP ] NP. Interpretation #2: both the eggs and ham are green. I like [green [[eggs] N’ and [ham] N’ ] NP. Let’s check out the trees…

10. Interpretation #1 Only the eggs are green: IP NPI’ ProIVP I[-past]V’ VNP likeNPConNP APN’andham greenN eggs

11. Interpretation #2 Both the eggs and ham are green: IP NPI’ ProIVP I[-past]V’ VNP likeAPN’ greenN’ConN’ NandN eggsham

12. Further Ambiguity Let’s try another one: The police shot the terrorists with rifles. Why is this sentence ambiguous? (How can you describe the ambiguity, structurally?) Interpretation #1: the terrorists have rifles. [with rifles] is a PP embedded in the object NP. Interpretation #2: the police have rifles. [with rifles] is a PP that modifies the main VP. Let’s check out some more trees…

13. Interpretation #1 IP NPI’ the policeIVP [+past]V’ VNP shotDetN’ theNPP terroristsP’ PNP withrifles In this one, the terrorists have the rifles.

14. Interpretation #2 IP NPI’ the policeIVP [+past]V’PP VNPP’ shotDetN’PNP theNwithrifles terrorists In this one, 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.

15. Modifiers? IP NPI’ the policeIVP [+past]V’PP VNPP’ shotDetN’PNP theNwithrifles 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.

16. More Modifiers From the last Quick Write: IP NPI’ SheIVP [-past]V’AdvP VCPDegAdv’ wantsIPreallyAdv IVPbadly toVNP playtennis (I’m glossing over some of the structure here) In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “wants”.

17. More Modifiers IP NPI’ SheIVP [-past]V’ VCP wantsIP IVP toVNPAdvP playtennisreally badly (I’m glossing over some of the structure here) In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “play”.

18. 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.

19. 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 (Complement)

20. 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”

21. Syntactic Typology Sentences in head-final languages usually follow the pattern: subject - object - verb (SOV) Japanese examples: Taro-ga inu-omitsuketa Taro-subject marker dog-object markerfound “Taro found a dog.” Inu-ganiwa-deasondeiru dog-subject markergarden-inplayingis “The dog is playing in the garden.”

22. 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

23. 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)

24. 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 GEN2 baby(SVO)

25. 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.

26. 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. DeclarativeInterrogative 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?

27. What’s the Pattern? Declarative sentences like “The boy is sleeping” can be generated with the usual syntactic rules. IP NPI’ DetN’IVP theNisV’ boyV sleeping We get the interrogative sentence “Is the boy sleeping?” by inverting the order of the subject and the auxiliary.

28. Inversion CP C’ CIP NPI’ DetN’IVP theNisV’ boyV sleeping

29. Inversion CP C’ CIP NPI’ DetN’IVP theNisV’ boyV sleeping Rule: move the I head to the C node. This “inversion” rule creates a yes/no question. Note: the auxiliary verb moves from one head slot to another.

30. Inversion Results CP C’ CIP isNPI’ [+Q]DetN’IVP theNtV’ boyV sleeping 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. The movement leaves a “trace” (t) behind in the I slot.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. Wh Questions Here’s another relationship between sentences: DeclarativeInterrogative 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

36. 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?

37. 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?

38. Wh-Movement CP (Spec)C’ CIP NPI’ BartIVP didV’ VNP kickwhat

39. Wh-Movement CP (Spec)C’ CIP didNPI’ BartIVP tV’ VNP kickwhat

40. Wh-Movement CP NPC’ WhatCIP didNPI’ BartIVP tV’ VNP kick t The Wh- particle moves from a non-head position to another non-head position. (so it doesn’t cross paths with move #1)