L2 Syntax Lecture 7: Case

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L2 Syntax Lecture 7Case

• Robert Truswell

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Today

• Recap on CPs and DPs
• Case differentiating subject and object
• Case in English
• Case in other languages

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Todays reading

• Santorini Kroch, ch.8 (up to and including
  Case features section)
• http//www.ling.upenn.edu/beatrice/syntax-textboo
  k/ch8.html
• Links from WebCT and from the course website.

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Complex Sentences

• We believe that the dog pursued the rabbit
• They wonder if he left

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Building a complex sentence
IP
A big structure, built with familiar operations
I
j
I
VP
pres
V
NP
V
CP
believe
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A closer look at determiners

• Determiners can appear
• pre-nominally
• the man, a dog
• pro-nominally
• we, you, they, this, that, them
• some do both
• we Brits, this dog, them bones
• and some noun phrases dont need them
• rice, sand, dogs

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One possible solution
NP

• This has different categories as determiner and
  pronoun
• Det doesnt fit the X phrase structure scheme

N
Det
this
N
man
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Another possible solution
NP

• No unified phrase structure for nominals
• Implies massive lexical ambiguity in the
  elementary trees of verbs (select NP or DP).

DP
N
D
N
D
man
this
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A better solution

• Determiners are a third functional head
• Some take an NP complement
• this gets you the pre-nominals
• Some dont take a complement
• this gets you the pro-nominals
• The things we call noun phrases are in fact
  Determiner Phrases (DPs), which may contain an NP

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Different Ds
DP
DP
DP
D
D
D
D
NP
D
NP
D
men
the
man
this
this
All substitute into DP substitution nodes
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Accommodating DPs
IP
VP
PP
NP
NP
DP
DP
I
V
P
I
V
P
VP
NP
NP
DP
DP
will
pursued
in
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Silent determiners

• What about
• They ate rice
• Dogs pursue cats
• These are DPs with a silent D

DP
DP
D
D
D
D
NP
NP
indef. sing.
indef. plur.
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The sentence/noun phrase parallel
DP
D
i
NP
D
DP
s
N
N
visit
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Event nominals and object nominals
DP
DP
D
D
i
NP
D
NP
D
s
DP
s
N
N
N
N
brother
visit
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DPs a summary

• We want to treat noun phrases in a uniform
  fashion, regardless of whether they are pronouns
  or bigger expressions
• Do this by introducing a new functional head D
• D projects a DP
• Some varieties of D take a complement NP

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So where are we?

• Generate an infinite set of strings based on a
  finite set of rules operating over constituents
• Better conception of sentence and noun phrase
  structure (CP, IP, DP)
• Parallels between structure of sentences and noun
  phrases

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Still to do

• Major outstanding problems are all to do with
  movement
• Very powerful tool for rearranging constituents
  (1 XP in many positions)
• Need to understand reasons why constituents move
• Need to understand when movement is and isnt
  possible

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An example
IP
NOT
IP
I
DPi
I
DPi
VP
VP
I
I
John
John
V
V
DP
past
DP
past
V
DP
V
DP
ti
ti
bit
ti
bit
himself
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The proposal in brief

• A lot of movement relates positions where
  thematic roles are assigned to positions where
  case is assigned.
• The movement on the previous slide was
  illegitimate because it doesnt match this
  description

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Marking grammatical roles

• Languages need ways of marking
• subject
• object
• Two ways of doing this
• word order
• case

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Case marking in English

• The man bit the dog
• The dog bit the man
• He bit it
• It bit him
• 3rd person male pronoun
• he when subject
• him when object

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Case marking on English pronouns

• Subject form
• I
• you
• he, she, it
• we
• you
• they
• Nominative

• Object form
• me
• you
• him, her, it
• us
• you
• them
• Objective

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Case marking in English Genitive

• Nominative subject
• Objective object
• Genitive Subject of noun phrase
• I have a dog. My dog
• He has a cat. His cat
• They have money. Their money
• The man has a house. The mans house

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Case marking on English pronouns

• Nominative
• I
• you
• he, she, it
• we
• you
• they

Genitive my your his, her, its our your their

• Objective
• me
• you
• him, her, it
• us
• you
• them

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Examples
She chased him
OBJ.
NOM.
They slept
NOM.
It burned them
NOM.
OBJ.

We sell it to them
OBJ.
OBJ.
NOM.
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Examples for full noun phrases
The woman chased the man
NOM.
OBJ.
The cows slept
NOM.
The sun burned the Scottish tourists
NOM.
OBJ.

The lecturers sell exam papers to students
NOM.
OBJ.
OBJ.
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Summary so far

• Noun phrases (DPs) in English are marked for case
  (Nominative, Objective, Genitive)
• In English, this usually doesnt make much
  difference to surface form
• impoverished case marking in English
• word order does most of the work
• Other languages have much richer case systems
  (and more flexible word order)

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Case marking in German
der Mann the.NOM man
beisst beisst
den Hund the.ACC dog
the man bites the dog
der Hund the.NOM dog
beisst beisst
den Mann the.ACC man
the dog bit the man
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Case marking in German

• der Hund beisst den Mann
• den Mann beisst der Hund
• der Mann beisst den Hund
• den Hund beisst der Mann
• Case marked on Determiners
• Nominative der
• Accusative den

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Case marking in German

• German has four cases
• Nominative subjects
• Accusative most direct objects
• Dative indirect objects, direct objects of some
  verbs, objects of prepositions
• Genitive possessors, direct objects of some
  verbs
• The forms of NPs depend on case, gender, and
  number

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More complex systems

• Latin 6 cases
• Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive,
  Ablative, Vocative
• puer puell-am amat
• boy-NOM girl-ACC loves
• The boy loves the girl
• puer-um puell-a amat
• boy-ACC girl-NOM loves
• The girl loves the boy

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More complex systems

• Latin 6 cases
• Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive,
  Ablative, Vocative
• magn-us puer puell-am amat
• big-NOM boy-NOM girl-ACC loves
• The big boy loves the girl
• magn-um puer-um puell-a amat
• big-ACC boy-ACC girl-NOM loves
• The girl loves the big boy

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More complex systems

• Proto-Indo-European 8 cases
• Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive,
  Ablative, Locative, Instrumental, Vocative
• ekwo-s
• horse-NOM
• ekwo-m
• horse-ACC
• ekwo-o
• horse-INSTR

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More complex systems

• Basque 13-15 cases
• Absolutive, Ergative, Dative, Genitive,
  Instrumental, Comitative, Locative, Ablative,
  Allative, Terminative, Directional, Benefactive,
  Destinative, Partitive, Essive
• Lezgian c.18 cases

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Case and thematic roles

• Grammatical role gives a clue to thematic role
• e.g., subjects tend to be agents, objects tend to
  be themes

She thumped him
NOM.
OBJ.
THEME
AGENT
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Case and thematic roles

• Cases sometimes look suspiciously like thematic
  roles
• Goal ?-role place to which the Theme moves
• Dative case often assigned to noun phrases
  bearing the Goal ?-role
• Location ?-role place where action is situated
• Locative case assigned to noun phrases bearing
  the Location ?-role
• But they arent identical

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The difference between case and thematic role
He melted the ice
NOM.
OBJ.
THEME
AGENT
The ice melted
NOM.
THEME
The ice was melted by him
NOM.
OBJ.
AGENT
THEME
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The difference between case and thematic role
It seems he melted the ice
OBJ.
NOM.
NOM.
THEME
AGENT
?
He seemed to melt the ice
NOM.
OBJ.
THEME
AGENT(??)
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The claim (next lecture)

• Thematic roles are assigned where DPs originally
  substitute in to the tree (base positions)
• Case is assigned in positions where DPs end up
  after any movement

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Ergative-absolutive systems

• 50 of languages do not mark case
• 30 of languages use Nom-Acc systems
• 15 use Ergative-Absolutive systems
• 5 use something else
• Ergative case subjects of transitive verbs
• Absolutive case objects of transitive verbs AND
  subjects of intransitive verbs (unmarked)

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Ergative-absolutive systems an example from
Basque

• gizona-k mutila ikusi du
• man-ERG boy-ABS saw
• The man saw the boy
• gizona etorri da
• man-ABS arrived
• The man arrived

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Case a summary

• Languages need to mark various grammatical roles
• subject, direct object, indirect object,
• Two ways of doing so
• word order versus case marking
• Different languages do case in different ways
• number of cases, richness of marking, Nom-Acc
  versus Erg-Abs,
• Case and thematic role are related
• but theyre not identical

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Next

• Mondays lecture
• how is case assigned?
• explaining movement in terms of case and thematic
  roles