Syntax 3

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Syntax 3

• Ling400

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Long-distance relations

• WH movement
• A wh-expression (what, who, etc.) is often found
  in the wrong place and is related to another
  position within the same sentence.
• Our theory explains this fact in terms of a
  movement transformation.

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WH movement
S
NP Mary
VP
Aux has
NP what
Vt eaten
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WH movement
S
What
Aux has
NP Mary
Aux has
VP
NP what
Vt eaten
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Subj.-Aux. inversion

• John can eat fish.
• John can eat what?
• John can eat fish what ?
• John will disappear what?
• John will disappear.
• auxiliary verbs are generated between the subject
  NP and the main verb.
• subj and aux then switch positions in
  wh-questions.

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Wh-movementSubj-Aux inversion
S
WH What
Aux has
VP
NP Mary
Aux has
NP what
V eaten
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Subj-Aux inversion in yes-no questions

• John can come to the party.
• Can John come to the party?
• Bill will get married next month.
• Will Bill get married next month?
• John studies mathematics.
• Studies John mathematics?
• Does John study mathematics? Dont worry about
  this one.

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Embedded questions

• What happens in embedded questions?
• John knows what Bill can eat.
• John knows what can Bill eat.
• John knows Bill can eat what.
• Wh-movement occurs
• Subj.-Aux. Inversion does not occur.

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WH questions in other languages

• Not all languages move wh-words in wh-questions.
• Examples Chinese, Japanese, and many others.

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WH questions in Chinese

• Ni shenme shihou qu yinyue hui?
• you what time go to music meeting
• When will you go to the concert?
• Ni cong nali lai?
• you from where come
• Where do you come from?

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WH questions in Chinese

• Tamen zuotian wanshang chi shenme le?
• they yesterday night eat what asp-mk
• What did they eat last night?
• Women zenme zuo jiaozi?
• we how make dumpling
• How do we make dumplings?

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WH questions in Chinese

• Ta wei shenme ku le?
• she for what cry asp-mk
• Why did she cry?
• Ni shi shei?
• you are who
• Who are you?

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The Organization of Grammar

• Lexicon (finite)
• Phrase structure rules (finite)
• Transformations (finite very, very small in
  number)
• This system is capable of generating an infinite
  number of sentences.

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Word Order Typology
English They ate an apple (SVO) Russian Oni
yabloko syeli (SOV) they apple
ate Turkish Onlar elma
yediler (SOV) they apple ate
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(No Transcript)
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Word Order Typology
SOV - Russian, Turkish, Basque,
Burmese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, Quechua,
Guugu Ymidhirr, Aleut, German (?) SVO
- English, Spanish, Italian, French, Latin,
Chinese VSO - Irish, Welsh, Berber,
Hebrew, Maori, Maasai VOS - Malagasy OVS
- Amazon Basin OSV - ???
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Case Marking Typology
SOV - Russian, Turkish, Basque,
Burmese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, Quechua,
Guugu Ymidhirr, Aleut, German (?) SVO
- English, Spanish, Italian, French, Latin,
Chinese VSO - Irish, Welsh, Berber,
Hebrew, Maori, Maasai VOS - Malagasy OVS
- Amazon Basin OSV - ???
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Typology re Case-Marking

• Nominative-accusative languages (e.g. English,
  Japanese)
• The subject of a transitive verb and the subject
  of an intransitive verb receive the same case
  marker (nominative).
• Ergative-absolutive languages (e.g. Basque)
• The object of a transitive verb and the subject
  of an intransitive verb receive the same case
  (absolutive).

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Typology re Case-Marking

• She hit him. He arrived.
• nom acc nom
• Basque
• Aita ethorri du.
• father came My father
  came.
• absolutive
• Ni-k aita maite du.
• I father love
• ergative absolutive I love my
  father

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WH questions advanced

• WH words ask questions in simple sentences, but
  can also ask questions in complex sentences
  implying long distance relations/dependencies.
• What did Bill say that Mary saw ___?
• Where did Bill say that Tom took Mary __?
• Who did Bill say that Tom claimed that Helen
  spoke to ___?

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(No Transcript)
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WH and syntactic mysteries

• The boy that I spoke to at noon said he bought a
  book yesterday at the bookstore.
• When did the boy say he bought the book?
• --At noon
• --Yesterday
• The question word when can be extracted from the
  main or embedded sentence

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WH and syntactic mysteries

• When did the boy say where he bought the book?
• --At noon
• --Yesterday
• The question word when can only be associated
  with the main clause ( sentence), not the
  embedded sentence

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WH and syntactic mysteries

• What is the difference between the two questions?
• When did the boy say ___ he bought the book ___?
• When did the boy say ___ where he bought the book
  ___?
• The second sentence has a WH word at the left
  edge of the embedded S