L2 Syntax Lecture 5: Functional structure of simple clauses

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L2 Syntax Lecture 5Functional structure of
simple clauses

• Robert Truswell

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Today

• Quick recap on X theory
• Looking again at the structure of sentences
• Fitting in auxiliary verbs
• A new category, I
• Subject movement

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Todays reading

• Santorini Kroch, ch.4
• http//www.ling.upenn.edu/beatrice/syntax-textboo
  k/ch4.html
• Links from WebCT and from the course website.

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NP-VP parallels
S
NP
VP
I
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NP-VP parallels
VP
V
NP
I
V
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NP-VP parallels
NP
N
Det
this
N
PP
PP
N
from France
piece
of pie
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X theory

• All phrases have the same structure

XP
X
WP
ZP
X
specifier
YP
adjunct
complement
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The idea behind X theory
XP

• X can be
• V
• N
• P
• Adj
• Adv

X
X
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The idea behind X theory
XP

• Categories of
• complements
• adjuncts
• specifiers
• depend on the head

X
X
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The idea behind X theory
XP
X
WP
ZP
X
specifier
YP
adjunct
complement
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The idea behind X theory
XP
X
WP
ZP
X
specifier
adjunct
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The idea behind X theory
XP
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The idea behind X theory
XP
WP
specifier
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The structure of sentences

• Constituency is correct
• What did the man do? Chase the dog.
• The man chased the dog and stroked the cat
• The man chased the dog on Tuesday and I did so on
  Wednesday

VP
NP
V
The man
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The structure of sentences

• Endocentric
• no unmotivated S
• no lexicon-external phrase structure rules
• Verb assigns thematic roles to its arguments
  locally
• AGENT to the man
• THEME to the dog

VP
NP
V
The man
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The structure of sentences

• Subject agrees with verb locally
• the man/the men chases the dog
• the man/the men chase the dog
• Is this all we need?

VP
NP
V
The man
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Auxiliary verbs

• Our tree covers
• He chased the dog
• What about
• He will chase the dog
• He did chase the dog
• (2) and (3) have an extra word an auxiliary

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Three candidate trees

• Can we just put an extra node inside VP?

VP
V
V
chase
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Three candidate trees

• Can we just put an extra node inside VP?

VP
V
V
V
chase
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Three candidate trees
Can we just put an extra node inside VP?
VP
V
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Testing a candidate tree

• chase the dog is a constituent
• The man will chase the dog and stroke the cat
• The man will chase the dog and I will do so too

VP
V
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Testing another candidate tree
VP

• Aux isnt optional
• The man chase the dog
• Other adjuncts appear in the wrong place
• The man happily will chase the dog

V
V
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Testing another candidate tree
VP
V
NP
AdvP
The man
happily
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Testing a third candidate tree
VP
V
NP
Aux
NP
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Testing a third candidate tree
VP

• Aux isnt obligatory shouldnt be in elementary
  tree
• The man chased the dog

V
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Towards a solution
Need some structure above the VP

• Note
• I stands for Inflectional well see why soon.
• I takes a VP complement
• VP substitutes in to this structure

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Towards a solution
IP

• The man will chase the dog
• Can you spot the problem?

I
VP
I
VP
V
V
will
V
V
chase
chase
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Towards a solution subject movement
IP

• the man starts in Spec,VP
• its an argument of the verb

I
VP
I
NP
V
will
V
the man
chase
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Towards a solution subject movement
IP

• it moves to Spec, IP
• its the subject of the sentence

I
VP
I
NP
NP
V
will
V
the man
chase
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Towards a solution subject movement
IP

• it leaves a trace behind
• co-indexed

I
NPi
VP
I
the man
NP
V
will
V
ti
chase
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Subject movement explained

• Movement is a way of representing how one
  constituent can fulfil two functions
• the man is both
• an argument of the verb
• the subject of the sentence
• Movement allows us to account for this double
  function

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Does it work?
IP

• Constituency is correct
• The man will chase the dog, and I will do so too
• The man will chase the dog and may bite the cat

I
NPi
VP
I
the man
V
will
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Does it work?
IP

• Verb adjuncts appear in the correct place
• The man will happily chase the dog

I
NPi
VP
I
the man
V
NP
will
ti
V
AdvP
NP
V
happily
chase
the dog
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Inflection

• Our tree now covers
• He will chase the dog
• He did chase the dog
• What about the old ones?
• He chased the dog
• He chases the dog

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Inflection

• He will chase the dog
• He chased the dog
• Two observations
• (1) has auxiliary uninflected verb
• (2) has no auxiliary inflected verb

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Inflection

• Two different ways of expressing tense
• auxiliary
• He will chase the dog
• inflection on verb
• He chas-ed the dog
• These are in complementary distribution you see
  one or the other, not both

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Inflection

• Natural explanation they are both of category I
  (stands for Inflection)

IP
NP
NP
I
VP
I
-ed
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Building a sentence
IP
I
NP
VP
I
-ed
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Building a sentence
IP

• Substitute in VP

I
NP
VP
I
NP
V
-ed
V
the man
chase
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Building a sentence
IP

• Move subject

I
NP
VP
I
NP
NPi
V
-ed
ti
V
the man
chase
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Tense lowering in English?
IP

• Inflection has to hook up with the verb somehow

I
NPi
VP
I
the man
NP
V
-ed
tj
V
ti
chas
j
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Verb movement in French?
IP

• Inflection has to hook up with the verb somehow

I
NPi
VP
I
lhomme
NP
V
-e
j
V
ti
frapp
tj
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Tense lowering versus verb raising

• Crucial data position of adverbs
• The man often chases the dog
• Lhomme frappe souvent le chien

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Tense lowering and adverbs
IP
The man t t often chas-es the dog
I
NPi
VP
I
the man
V
NP
tj
-es
ti
V
AdvP
NP
V
often
chas
the dog
j
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Verb raising and adverbs
IP
Lhomme frapp-e t souvent t le chien
I
NPi
VP
I
lhomme
V
NP
-e
j
ti
V
AdvP
NP
V
souvent
frapp
tj
le chien
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Tense lowering versus verb raising

• Crucial data position of adverbs
• The man often chases the dog
• Lhomme frappe souvent le chien
• See Santorini Kroch, Ch. 6, if you are
  interested in tense lowering versus verb raising.
• Well briefly see another example in the lecture
  on wh-questions (lecture 11).

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Irregular morphology
IP
I
NPi
VP
I
the girl
NPi
V
-ed
tj
V
ti
sing
j
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An alternative analysis
IP
NP
NP
I
VP
I
past
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Building a sentence
IP

• past is the silent past tense auxiliary

I
NP
VP
I
past
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Building a sentence
IP

• Substitute in VP
• I and V must agree for tense

I
NP
VP
I
NP
V
past
V
the girl
sang
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Building a sentence
IP

• Move subject

I
NP
VP
I
NP
NPi
V
past
V
ti
the girl
sang
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Building a sentence
IP

• Constraint that both I and V must carry the same
  specification for tense
• A type of head-head agreement relation

NPi
I
VP
I
the girl
NP
V
past
V
ti
sang
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Building a sentence
IP

• If we need this structure for verbs with
  irregular morphology, we should use it for
  regular verbs too

NPi
I
VP
I
the girl
NP
V
past
V
ti
dance-d
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Different Is
NP
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Disclaimer

• I have introduced two different operations
• Movement relates a gap to a higher constituent.
• Agreement relates a head to a lower constituent

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Disclaimer

• I tried to motivate this by discussing irregular
  morphology and auxiliaries in English
• Mary past sang a song
• Mary will sing a song
• But French has both of these too
• Je suis heureux
• Je vais être heureux

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Disclaimer

• So we have good evidence from adverb distribution
  that the verb is in a different position in
  English and French
• The man often chases the dog
• Lhomme frappe souvent le chien
• But we do not have good evidence that this is due
  to two different operations (movement and
  agreement)

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Disclaimer

• Please take this as an article of faith for this
  course
• Movement takes a constituent to a higher
  position, leaving a trace
• Agreement relates a higher head (which you may or
  may not hear) to a lower position
• We will see lots more movement. The syntax of
  agreement is not a prehonours topic.

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The basics of movement

• Movement goes to higher positions
• Leaves a trace
• Phrases move to phrasal positions
• Heads move to head positions

XP
X
YP
X
YjX
ZP
ZPi
Y
tj
ti
Y
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Summary

• Auxiliaries and inflection for tense are in
  complementary distribution
• We can explain this by introducing a functional
  head I
• I takes VP as a complement and NP as specifier
• Subject moves from Spec, VP to Spec, IP

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Next

• Fridays lecture
• more functional heads
• Subsequent lectures
• why do things (e.g. subjects) move?