Introduction to syntax 1 Introduction to syntax 2 Course time: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Introduction to syntax

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Introduction to syntax

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Course time: Tuesday/Friday 11:00 AM-12:50 PM Location: JSB 221 instructor: David Pesetsky (pesetsk@mit.edu)

• ffice:

to be announced

• ffice hours: to be announced

TAs: Danfeng Wu (dfwu@mit.edu) Sahar Taghipour (sta262@g.uky.edu)

• ffice hours: to be announced

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Tentative plan

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Basic phrase structure Constituents

• Sentence fragments, movement, ellipsis,

anaphora as tests for constituency, ambiguities

• built by the rule "Merge"

Subcategorization and the notion "head"

• The sisterhood condition on

subcategorization, and some consequences. Implications for acquisition.

• Modification of the sisterhood condition gives

the notion "head".

• Structural definition of grammatical relations:

subject, object θ-roles

• Agent, patient, goal...
• the Uniformity of Theta Assignment

Hypothesis (UTAH)

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Universal Grammar and language variation

• the Cinque hierarchy
• head-final vs. head-initial languages
• mixed languages: FOFC

Movement as Internal Merge

• scrambling in Japanese
• wh-movement in English
• verb-second (V2) in Germanic
• V2 on four continents
• V-to-T in French
• Verb-initiality in Irish

Case Theory

• morphological case systems
• Case and the licensing of nominal

complements

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A-movement

• Exceptional Case Marking
• Passive: movement motivated by Case
• VP-internal subjects
• Unaccusativity and Raising (vs. Control)

A-bar movement

• wh-movement and pied-piping: probes and

goals

• Successive-cyclicity and island phenomena

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Lexicon

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• 1. the
• 2. girl
• 3. will 4. read

5.book part of speech Determiner Noun Tense Verb Noun meaning take Ladusaw's course who is a girl future whatever "read" means which is a book sound [ðə] [gɹ ̩ l] [wɪl] [ri:d] [bʊk]

Lexicon

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SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. dog?

credit: Radford, Andrew. 1988. Transformational Grammar: A First Course. CUP, Cambridge.

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. the lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog.

• ver the lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. jump over the lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. will jump over the lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. *fox will jump over the lazy dog?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. fox?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. brown fox?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. quick brown fox?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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The quick brown fox will jump over the lazy dog. *jump over the?

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

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SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: Terminology

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• node
• immediately dominates
• dominates
• mother
• daughter
• sister
• root node
• terminal node

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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lazy merges with dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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Merge Form a set (called a phrase or constituent) whose members are two elements α and β, either or both of which may be:

• a. words from the lexicon, or
• b. a set previously formed by Merge

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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the merges with lazy dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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• ver merges with the lazy dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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jump merges with over the lazy dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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will merges with jump over the lazy dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away ... brown merges with fox

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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quick merges with brown fox

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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the merges with quick brown fox

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: produced by Merge

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and then ... the quick brown fox merges with will jump over the lazy dog

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: labeling the nodes

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• The sister of a preposition must contain a noun

(even if a determiner and various articles linearly intervene) The quick brown fox will jump ...

• a. ... over the lazy dog.
• b. ... over the dog.
• c. ... over lazy dogs.
• d. ... over dogs.
• e. ... over the ridiculous lazy dog.
• f. ... *over the.
• g. ... *over the lazy.
• h. ... *over of.

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: labeling the nodes

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Noun Phrases (NP)

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE: labeling the nodes

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The nodes for which N is the head are labeled N' or NP. They are "projections" of N. (Sophisticates: don't ask me about DP.)

Heads and complements

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eat vs. devour ask vs. inquire throw vs. put give vs. hand vs. write

Heads and complements

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(1) a. Mary has eaten.

• b. Mary has eaten the pizza.
• c. *Mary has devoured.
• d. Mary has devoured the pizza.

(2)

• a. Bill will ask the time.
• b. *Bill will inquire the time.
• c. Bill will ask about the time.
• d. Bill will inquire about the time.

Heads and complements

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(3) a. [?]Sue will throw.

• b. Sue will throw the ball.
• c. Sue will throw the ball to Tom.
• d. [?]Sue will throw to Tom.

[a & d ok in sports context]

• e. *Sue will put.
• f. *Sue will put the book.
• g. Sue will put the book under the desk.
• h. *Sue will put under the desk.

Heads and complements

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The facts: eat:

• ptional NP sister

devour:

• bligatory NP sister

inquire: *NP sister ask:

• k (?) NP sister

throw:

• ptional NP and optional PP sisters

put:

• bligatory NP PP sisters

Heads and complements

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Subcategorization information in lexical entries: eat: [+ __ (NP)] devour: [+ __ NP] ask: [+ __ NP] inquire: (not like ask) throw: [+ __ NP (PP)] put: [+ __ NP PP]

Heads and complements

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It's not just verbs that have subcategorization properties: (1) adjectives

• a. *Mary is fond.
• b. Mary is fond of her friends.
• c. Mary is proud.
• d. Mary is proud of her friends.

(2) prepositions

• a. *Mary went into.
• b. Mary went into the room.
• c. Mary went in.
• d. Mary went in the room.

Heads and complements

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Chomsky's generalization The lexical entry for a word contains subcategorization information only about its sister.

Heads and complements

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What's interesting about Chomsky's generalization? Significance for language acquisition: 1.Assume the generalization is just the way language works — part of Universal Grammar. 2.This means that a child who is acquiring language does not have to pay attention to the entire phrase structure tree when learning the subcategorization requirements of a word. Makes the task easier.

Heads and complements

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What's wrong with the generalization? A verb may subcategorize for the P of a complement PP: English Russian depend on zaviset' ot

• lit. 'depend from'

speak to govorit' s

• lit. 'speak with'

look at smotret' na

• lit. 'watch on'

look for iskat' knigu

• lit. 'seek'

Heads and complements

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Modification of Chomsky's generalization: The revised subcategorization generalization The lexical entry for a word contains subcategorization information about the head of its sister. We can now use the revised generalization to probe for the heads of phrases:

Heads and complements

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V subcategorizes for the complementizer of its complement when that complement is a clause (that vs. for): (1) a. Mary will believe [that the brown fox has depended on the lazy dog].

• b. Mary will arrange

[for the brown fox to depend on the lazy dog]. (2) a. *Mary will believe [for the brown fox to depend on the lazy dog].

• b. *Mary will arrange

[that the brown fox has depended on the lazy book].

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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C subcategorizes for the I of its sister (to vs. tensed verb): (3) a. *Mary will believe [that the brown fox to depend on the lazy dog].

• b. Mary will arrange

[for the brown fox to depend on the lazy dog].

• c. Mary will believe

[that the brown fox has depended on the lazy dog].

• d. *Mary will arrange

[for the brown fox has depended on the lazy dog].

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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I subcategorizes for the V-morphology of its VP complement

(1) a. ... [for the quick brown fox to [depend on the lazy dog].

• b. *...[for the quick brown fox to [depended on the lazy dog].

(2) a. ... [that the quick brown fox will [depend on the lazy dog].

• b. *... [that the quick brown fox will [depended on the lazy dog].

(3) a. *... [that the quick brown fox has depend on the lazy dog].

• b. ... [that the quick brown fox has depended on the lazy dog].

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Japanese

(1) John-ga hon-o yon da John-SUBJ book-DO read PAST 'John has read the book'/'John read the book' (2) John-ga Mary-ni kono hon-o age ta John-SUBJ Mary-IO that book-DO give PAST 'John has given that book to Mary/John gave Mary that book' (3) Mary-ga kono Nihon kara-no kagaku no gakusei-o] home ta Mary-SUBJ this Japan from chemistry of student-DO praise PAST 'Mary praised this student of chemistry from Japan' (4) Mary-ga John-ga hon-o yon da to omottei ru Mary-SUBJ John-SUBJ book-DO read PAST that think PRESENT 'Mary thinks that John is reading the book'

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Linearization generalization: If X subcategorizes for Y, then X precedes Y in English and X follows Y in Japanese

Heads and complements

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• English is a uniformly head-first language.
• Japanese is a uniformly head-last language.

Where "head-first" means the head of the phrase precedes its sister (and conversely for "head-last").

Heads and complements

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Recall: The relative order of a head and the element that it merges with varies systematically across languages: head-initial languages: In languages like English, a head of a phrase systematically precedes its sister (the element it merged with): head non-head "...that Mary will read books"

Heads and complements

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head-final languages: In languages like Japanese, a head of a phrase systematically follows its sister (the element it merged with). non-head head books read head-last (Mary) [books read] will head-last (plus subject) (Mary) [books read will] that head-last "Sue [Mary books read will that] believes"

Heads and complements

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Certain kinds of mixed languages do exist... German (head-final V and T, head-initial C): books read head-last (Mary) [books read] will head-last (plus subject) that [(Mary) [books read will] head-first "...that Mary books read will" Spoken Afrikaans (head-final V, head-initial T and C) books read head-last (Mary) will [books read] head-first (plus subject) that [(Mary) will books read] head-first "...that Mary will books read"

Heads and complements

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Here are two other kinds of mixed languages:

Heads and complements

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Here are two other kinds of mixed languages: Literary Martian (head-initial V and T, head-final C): read books head-first (Mary) will [read books] head-first (plus subject) (Mary) will read books] that head-last "... Mary will read books that" Old High Venusian (head-initial V, head-final T and C) read books head-first (Mary) [read books] will head-last (plus subject) (Mary) [read books will] that head-last "... Mary read books will that"

Heads and complements

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Here are two other kinds of mixed languages: Literary Martian (head-initial V and T, head-final C): DOES NOT EXIST! read books head-first (Mary) will [read books] head-first (plus subject) (Mary) will read books] that head-last "... Mary will read books that" Old High Venusian (head-initial V, head-final T and C) DOES NOT EXIST! read books head-first (Mary) [read books] will head-last (plus subject) (Mary) [read books will] that head-last "... Mary read books will that"

Heads and complements

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... as discovered by Anders Holmberg The "Final-over-Final Constraint" (FOFC) a universal property of languages! . Within a single clause or noun-phrase, if a phrase is head- initial, the phrase that immediately contains it must also be head-initial... (...but if a phrase is head-final, the phrase that immediately contains it may be head-final or head-initial.)

(Holmberg 2000; Biberauer, Holmberg & Roberts 2010)

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Terminology:

• A phrase headed by X = a projection of X
• A phrase headed by X that is immediately dominated by a

projection of a different head = the maximal projection of X

• Maximal projection sister of a lexical item X = the complement of

X

• Maximal projection daughter of the maximal projection of X

(required as a special property of X) = the specifier of X

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Terminology:

• A phrase headed by X = a projection of X
• A phrase headed by X that is immediately dominated by a

projection of a different head = the maximal projection of X

• Maximal projection sister of a projecting lexical item X = the

complement of X

• Maximal projection daughter of the maximal projection of X

(required as a special property of X) = the specifier of X

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Terminology:

• A phrase headed by X = a projection of X
• A phrase headed by X that is immediately dominated by a

projection of a different head = the maximal projection of X

• Non-projecting sister of a lexical item X = the complement of X
• Non-projecting daughter of the maximal projection of X

(required as a special property of X) = the specifier of X

Heads and complements

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Heads and complements

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Notation:

• Lexical head of X:

Xº ("X-zero")

• Maximal projection of X:

XP

• Intermediate projection of X:

X' ("X-bar" (i.e. non-lexical, non-maximal) Things not to worry about: There is no need to draw non-branching nodes as the scanned textbook chapter does (e.g. a non-branching NP and non-branching N' dominating Mary) If a node is both a maximal projection of X and a lexical item, label it XP rather than Xº — but this is just so your trees look like what syntacticians are used to. No other reason.

Structure constrains interpretation

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Coreference between pronouns and full NPs: (1) a. Hillary claims that she likes pizza.

• b. She claims that Hillary likes pizza.

Structure constrains interpretation

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Coreference between pronouns and full NPs: (1) a. Hillaryi claims that shei likes pizza.

• b. *Shei claims that Hillaryi likes pizza.

(2) a. [This new book about Hillary] claims that she likes pizza.

• b. [This new book about her] claims that Hillary likes pizza.

Structure constrains interpretation

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Coreference between pronouns and full NPs: (1) a. Hillaryi claims that shei likes pizza.

• b. *Shei claims that Hillaryi likes pizza.

(2) a. [This new book about Hillaryi]claims that shei likes pizza.

• b. [This new book about heri] claims that Hillaryi likes pizza.

Structure constrains interpretation

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Coreference between pronouns and full NPs: (1) a. Hillaryi claims that shei likes pizza.

• b. *Shei claims that Hillaryi likes pizza.

(2) a. [This new book about Hillaryi] claims that shei likes pizza.

• b. [This new book about heri] claims that Hillaryi likes pizza.

(3) a. [Hillary'si enemies] claim that shei likes pizza.

• b. [Heri enemies] claim that Hillaryi likes pizza.

Structure constrains interpretation

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Structure constrains interpretation

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Structure constrains interpretation

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Structure constrains interpretation

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Structure constrains interpretation

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Principle C (relates syntax and semantics) If an pronoun NP x c-commands a full NP y, x and y may not be coreferent. Definition of c-command A node α c-commands a node β iff

• a. the mother of α dominates β, and
• b. α does not dominate β.

Structure constrains interpretation

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• node
• immediately dominates
• dominates
• mother
• daughter
• sister
• root node
• terminal node
• c-command

Structure constrains interpretation

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X-bar theory

Modifiers

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(1)

• a. a large small shirt
• b. a small large shirt

(2)

• a. a shirt [that's large] [that's small]
• b. a shirt [that's small] [that's large]

(2)

• a. a common wrong answer
• b. a wrong common answer

Modifiers

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Modifiers

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Modifiers

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Modifiers

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Modifiers

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Modifiers

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Modifiers

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• G. Cinque (1999) Adverbs and Functional Heads, Oxford University

Press. The hierarchical ordering of adverbs, when sorted by meaning, is invariant across languages. later he produced: a similar result for adjectives

Modifiers

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no longer > always

• a. Italian

Da allora, non ha più sempre vinto Since then, he has no longer always won *Da allora, non ha sempre più vinto

• b. Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian

On vise uvijek ne pobjedjuje he no-longer always not wins *On uvijek vise ne pobjedjuje

• c. Mandarin Chinese

ta bu-zai zongshi gen da-ge zhengcao he no-longer always quarrels with big brother *ta zongshi bu-zai gen da-ge zhengcao