Week 3a. q-roles, feature checking

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CAS LX 522Syntax I

• Week 3a. q-roles, feature checking
• 3.5-3.6

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Previously, in LX522

• We left off last time exploring the idea that
  sentences are built from syntactic objects by
  using the operation Merge, taking two syntactic
  objects and forming a new one from them.
• Big picture What were trying to model is a
  system that can construct alland onlythose
  strings of words that correspond to sentences of
  a language (e.g., English). If we succeed, this
  system is (at least isomorphic to) what we know
  when we know the language.

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Previously, in LX522

• So far, we have
• The lexicon (containing words, bundles of
  features)
• Merge (forms a syntactic object from two others).
• Merging two objects yields a new object that has
  the properties of one of the two objects.
• Merging eat and lunch yields a object that has
  the same kinds of properties as eat.
• The object whose features determine the features
  of the new object (project) is the head of the
  new objectthe most important component.
• The question now is how does Merge know which
  one is the head?

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Whos in charge here?

• The idea we are going to pursue here is that one
  of the two objects needs Merge to happenand the
  needy one is the head.
• What does it mean to need to Merge?
• Consider hit. This cant really stand on its own.
  It doesnt mean anything (its truth cant be
  evaluated) without providing a hitter and a
  hittee.

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Predicates, arguments, and propositions

• Conventional wisdom has it that a sentence needs
  a subject and a predicate.
• The idea is that the sentence expresses that the
  property signified by the predicate holds of the
  subject.
• Pat danced.
• Danced is the predicate, its a property that
  Pat, the subject, has (if the sentence is true).
  Something that can be true or false, a complete
  thought, is a proposition.

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Verbs and arguments

• Some are basically complete as they stand.
• Rain It rained.
• Some have only a subject, they cant have an
  objectthe intransitive verbs (1-place
  predicates).
• Sleep Bill slept Bill slept the book.
• Some also need an objectthe transitive verbs
  (2-place predicates).
• Hit Bill hit Bill hit the pillow.
• Some need two objectsditransitive verbs (3-place
  predicates).
• Put Bill put Bill put the bookBill put the
  book on the table.

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Verbs and arguments

• The participants in an event denoted by the
  verb are the arguments of that verb.
• Some verbs require one argument, some require two
  arguments, some require three arguments, some
  require none.
• Intuitively, the number of arguments is the
  number of things that a verb needs in order to
  make a proposition (something that can be either
  true or false).

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Predicates

• We will consider verbs to be predicates which
  define properties of and/or relations between the
  arguments.
• Bill hit the ball
• There was a hitting, Bill did the hitting, the
  ball was affected by the hitting.
• Different arguments have different roles in the
  event. (e.g., The hitter, the hittee)

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Thematic relations

• It has come to be standard practice to think of
  the selectional restrictions in terms of the
  thematic relation that the argument has to the
  verbthe role it plays in the event.
• One thematic relation is agent of an action, like
  Bill in
• Bill kicked the ball.

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Common thematic relations

• Agent initiator or doer in the event
• Theme affected by the event, or undergoes the
  action
• Bill kicked the ball.
• Experiencer feel or perceive the event
• Bill likes pizza.
• Proposition a statement, can be true/false.
• Bill said that he likes pizza.

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Thematic relations

• Goal
• Bill ran to Copley Square.
• Bill gave the book to Mary. (Recipient)
• Source
• Bill took a pencil from the pile.
• Instrument
• Bill ate the burrito with a plastic spork.
• Benefactive
• Bill cooked dinner for Mary.
• Location
• Bill sits under the tree on Wednesdays.

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Thematic relations

• Armed with these terms, we can describe the
  semantic connection between the verb and its
  arguments.
• Ray gave a grape to Bill.
• Ray Agent, Source,
• A grape Theme
• Bill Goal, Recipient,

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IntransitivesUnergatives and unaccusatives

• For intransitive verbs (1-place predicates),
  there are two primary classes
• Unergatives Agent assigned to argument.
• Pat danced. Pat yodelled.
• Unaccusatives Theme assigned to argument.
• Pat tripped. The boat sank.
• Basically what youd expect considering the
  normal transitive (2-place) verbs that have an
  Agent and a Theme.
• The naming of these classes is not my fault.

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q-roles

• An argument can participate in several thematic
  relations with the verb (e.g., Agent, Goal).
• In the syntax, we assign a special connection to
  the verb called a q-role, which is a collection
  of thematic relations.
• For the purposes of syntax, the q-role (the
  collection of relations) is much more central
  than the actual relations in the collection.

q-role
Source
Agent
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?-roles

• We will often need to make reference to a
  particular q-role, and we will often do this by
  referring to the most prominent relation in the
  collection.
• For example, in Bill hit the ball, we say that
  Bill has the Agent q-role, meaning it has a
  q-role containing the Agent relation, perhaps
  among others.

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The Unique q Generalization

• Each q-role must be assigned to a constituent,
  but a constituent cannot be assigned more than
  one q-role.
• (a.k.a. the q-criterion)
• Verbs have a certain number of q-roles to assign
  (e.g., say has two), and each of those must be
  assigned to a distinct argument.

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C-selection

• Verbs are recorded in the lexicon with the
  q-roles they assign as part of their meaning.
• But, (some) verbs can assign the same type of
  q-role to different categories of argument
• Pat felt a tremor. Pat felt uncomfortable. Pat
  felt that Chris had not performed well.
• Pat is the Experiencer a tremor (noun),
  uncomfortable (adjective), or thatwell
  (sentence) is the Theme/Source. So q-role does
  not determine syntactic category. And syntactic
  category certainly does not determine q-role.
• Pat kicked a pail. Pat kicked unhappy. Pat
  kicked that the earth is round.
• So verbs also need to be recorded with
  information about the syntactic category/ies
  they combine with.

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C-selection (Subcategorization)

• Kick needs a nominal object.
• Pat kicked the pail.
• Kick has a V category feature, but also needs
  to have an N category feature in some form to
  specify that it needs a nominal object.
• BUTWe dont want to risk interpreting kick as a
  noun, though. So, the V and N features must
  have a different status.
• On kick, the V feature is interpretable. The
  N feature is just for use in assembling the
  structure, it is not interpretedhence
  uninterpretable.
• The uninterpretable feature is an instruction for
  Merge.
• The interpretable feature plays a role in
  determining the meaning of the word.

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C-selection

• Not all transitive verbs (that take just one
  object) can take the same kind of object.
• Sue knows DP the answer
• Sue knows CP that Bill left early
• Sue hit DP the ball
• Sue hit CP that Bill left early
• So know can take either a DP or a CP as its
  object argument hit can only take a DP as its
  object argument.

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S-selection

• Verbs also exert semantic control of the kinds of
  arguments they allow.
• For example, many verbs can only have a
  volitional (agentive) subject
• Bill likes pizza. Bill kicked the stone.
• Pizza likes anchovies. The stone kicked Bill.
• Well assume that this is not encoded in the
  syntactic features, but if you mess up with
  respect to s-selection, the interpretation is
  anomalous.

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Feature checking

• For our model, we will say that if a syntactic
  object has an uninterpretable feature, it must
  Merge with a syntactic object that has a matching
  feature and once its done, the requirement is
  met. The uninterpretable feature is checked.
• Specifically
• Full Interpretation The structure to which the
  semantic interface rules apply contains no
  uninterpretable features.
• Checking Requirement Uninterpretable features
  must be checked (and once checked, they are
  deleted)
• Checking (under sisterhood) An uninterpretable
  feature F on a syntactic object Y is checked when
  Y is sister to another syntactic object Z which
  bears a matching feature F.

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Feature checking

• To distinguish interpretable features from
  uninterpretable features, we will write
  uninterpretable features with a u in front of
  them.
• D has uninterpretable feature F
• E has interpretable feature F.
• If we Merge them, the uninterpretable feature can
  be checked (under sisterhood).

D uF
E F
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Feature checking

• To distinguish interpretable features from
  uninterpretable features, we will write
  uninterpretable features with a u in front of
  them.
• D has uninterpretable feature F
• E has interpretable feature F.
• If we Merge them, the uninterpretable feature can
  be checked (under sisterhood).

C
D uF
E F
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Feature checking

• Or, for a more concrete example
• kick is a verb (has an interpretable V feature)
  and c-selects a noun (has an uninterpretable N
  feature).
• me is a noun (a pronoun in fact, has an
  interpretable N feature, and others like
  accusative case, first person, singular)

kick uN, V
me N, acc, 1, sg
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Feature checking

• Or, for a more concrete example
• kick is a verb (has an interpretable V feature)
  and c-selects a noun (has an uninterpretable N
  feature).
• me is a noun (a pronoun in fact, has an
  interpretable N feature, and others like
  accusative case, first person, singular)
• Merging them will check the uninterpretable
  feature, and the structure can be interpreted.

V
kick uN, V
me N, acc, 1, sg
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Feature checking

• The head is the needy one. The one that had the
  uninterpretable feature that was checked by
  Merge.
• The combination has the features of the verb kick
  and so its distribution will be like a verbs
  distribution would be.
• Pat wants to kick me.
• Pat wants to drive.
• I like to draw elephants.
• Pat wants to elephants.
• I like to draw kick me.

V
kick uN, V
me N, acc, 1, sg
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Chris glanced at Pat

• Pat Chris
• at glanced

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