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Introduction to Configurational Chapter 4 :

Chapter 4.

4 The Sentence, Auxiliary , and Recursion

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter the sentence and the () phrase whose head is an are formally introduced. These two categories do not appear to follow the universal expansion of XP proposed in Chapter 2. In the Principles and Parameters framework of syntax the structure of the sentence can be shown to fol- low the universal expansion of XP. However, the analysis of the sentence given the category CP1 is considered too complex to be covered here. The analyses given here follow the earlier standard views on the structure of the sentence.

4.2 The Sentence

At first glance, note that the sentence contains a NP and a VP:

(297)a. The moon orbits around the earth.

b. [NP the moon ] [VP orbits around the earth ].

We can state the expansion of S (sentence) as:

(298) The Expansion of S [1] S ˘ NP VP.

The structure for (297 is:

(299) [S [NP The moon ] [VP orbits around the earth]]

Up to this point we have claimed that all constituents contain a head and a complement. If this is the case then what is the head of S? In advanced work it can be shown to be either tense in some points of view, or the verb in other points of view. In some sense both points of view or correct; however, it is too complex a matter to attempt to explain this here. We will adopt the above expansion, which is traditional and found in most texts, and note that the verb is the unexplained head of the sentence. The phrase in (298) is considered to be the subject of the sentence. It is not a complement as defined in Chapter 2. Defining the subject is not a simple

1. CP stands for Phrase. CP is used in some elementary textbooks now, includ- ing Dobrovolsky and O’Grady (1990).

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Introduction to Configurational Syntax Section 4.3: The Auxiliary Verb and the task. Initially, we will assume the definition that the subject is the NP immediately dominated by S:2

(300) Subject of S The noun phrase that is immediately dominated by the node S is the subject of the sentence.

In Chapter 7 we return to the topic of the subject.

4.3 The Auxiliary Verb and the Verb Phrase

Traditional in generative grammar is the claim that the sentence contains a subject NP, an auxiliary verb, and a VP. Other proposals include a subject NP and a predicate phrase. In this section we will argue for a predicate phrase, though the argumentation for a predicate phrase is not a strong as for the phrasal categories introduced in Chapter 2. The auxiliary verb is a verbal category that has some syntactic properties that distinguish it from the main verb; i.e., verbs which are not auxiliary verbs. One property is that the auxiliary may precede the subject NP in questions:

(301) a. John can read linguistics books. b. Can John read linguistics books?

(302) a. Mary might buy a new fur coat. b. Might Mary buy a new fur coat?

The main verb cannot occur to the left of the subject NP:

(303) a. John reads linguistics books. b. *Reads John linguistics books? c. Does John read linguistics books?

(304) a. Mary bought a new fur coat. b. *Bought Mary a new fur coat? c. Did Mary buy a new fur coat?

2. It should be mentioned that not everyone agrees with this definition. In Relational Grammar the subject and other grammatical relations are assumed to be given relations and cannot be defined.

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Examples (303c) and (304c) are the grammatical forms for normal questions. The auxiliary verb do is used in the grammatical forms to form questions. We will not take up this process of incorporating do in questions in this text.3 What is the structure of a sentence with an auxiliary? Consider the following sentence:

(305) John will go.

As in the example of the verb, there are three possibilities:

(306) a. [ [ John will go ]. b. [ John will ] go. c. John [ will go ].

When asked about this, most people intuitively reject (306b). More people tend to favour (306c) over (306a). Although some linguists tend to favour (306c),4 more lin- guists have in the past favoured (306a):

(307) [ [ John ] [ will ] [ go ]] NP Aux VP Although the auxiliary can occur before the subject in questions, this does not prove that the auxiliary does not form a constituent with the verb. Only if both occurred in pre-subject position would repositioning be evidence for the constituent. This does not occur:

(308) a. *Will go John? b. *Go will John?

Technically, (308b) would not be evidence if it were acceptable since the order of the subject NP and the verb has been changed. There is no form that can replace will go, which would thus provide evidence that will go forms a constituent. However, omissibility might provide some evidence, though such evidence is weak:

(309) a. Who will go? John. b. Who bought a fur coat? Mary.

Of course, the verb phrase alone can also be omitted:

3. This process can be found in many intermediate and some introductory texts on syntax. 4. O’Grady and Dobrovolsky (1990) is one such text.

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(310) a. John will. b. Mary did.

But the auxiliary verb alone cannot be omitted:

(311) a. *John go. b. *Mary buy a fur coat.

It is possible to claim that the auxiliary verb can be omitted only if the following verb phrase is omitted. may provide some evidence for (306c):

(312) a. John should go and must go. b. I must go there and should stay for dinner.

These examples provide some further evidence that the auxiliary and the VP form a constituent:

(313) John [ should go ] and [ must go ].

Alternatively, it is possible to analyze (313) as two conjoined Ss, where the subject of the second S is omitted—[NP e ]]:

(314) [ John should go ] and [ e must go ].

Though neither bit of evidence is strong, there is no evidence to support the ternary analysis.5 Modal auxiliary verbs include will, shall, can, may, and must. These verbs are introduced below. Nevertheless, there is some additional syntactic evidence that weakly sup- ports the hypothesis that Aux and VP form an intermediate constituent):

5. The use of null categories should be avoided whenever possible.

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(315) a. Mary is singing. b. Mary is singing a song. c. Mary is dying. d. *Mary is dying a song. e. *Mary is devouring. f. Mary is devouring her lunch. g. #Mary is devouring a song.

There is a dependency relation between the auxiliary verb and what follows it. There is no dependency relation between the auxiliary verb and the subject. For example, no modal auxiliary can follow a modal auxiliary, though a non-modal auxiliary can:

(316) a. Mary must go. b. Mary must have gone. c. *Mary must can go. d. *Mary can must go.

We give evidence in ¤3.3 that the second auxiliary verb occurs in VP. More important note that the auxiliary verbs modifies the verb following it, b ut it has no direct affect on the meaning of the subject. This fact provides the best evidence that configuaration (306c) is the optimal configuration:

(317)a. Mary [ must go]. b. Mary [ must have gone].

Note that some linguists (O’Grady and Dobrovolsky (1987), for example) con- sider the modal auxiliaries to be a node ‘M’. Although it is true that these verbs are modal, they are technically auxiliary verbs given the definition of the auxiliary verb in English that we have proposed above. We consider modal verbs to be a subclass of auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary verb is a verb with special properties. Let us suppose that the auxiliary verb is the head of the unnamed constituent in (317). The constituent must also be a verb phrase. The complement of the constituent is a VP, whose head is a main verb in the following expansion:

(318 ) a. S ˘ NP VP. b. VP ˘ V VP.

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Note that the auxiliary verb doe not occur in all sentences. The VP takes either a NP or a VP as its complement. Rule (318) assumes that VP always occurs whether or not there is an auxiliary verb. Otherwise there would be three rules, (66), (318a), and (318b),6 as shown in (319):

(319 ) a. S ˘ NP VP. b. VP ˘ V VP. c. VP ˘ V NP.

This results in unnecessary redundancy. The subject NP and the VP are each gen- erated by two rules. In (318) The NP and VP are each generated once. One of the criteria of descriptive adequacy is to eliminate as much redundancy as possible. This can be accomplished by combining the rules expanding VP:

(320 ) a. S ˘ NP VP. b. VP ˘ V {VP, NP}. The P-marker for (305) is the following:

(321) S

NP VP

NVVP

V

John will go

There is a restriction on the expansion of VP. Note that if VP is expanded as V + VP, the first V must be an auxiliary verb. The first one cannot be a main verb:

(322) *They sing write a book.

This restriction can be written as a feature of V. This feature may be ‘[Aux]’ or [+Strong]. We will assume the latter here. Auxiliary verbs are defined as strong

6. In advanced syntax there is more evidence that supports V + VP.

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Introduction to Configurational Syntax Chapter 4 : verbs. Main verbs non-strong verbs: [-Strong]. Although it not conventional to write tree structures with features, it is possible to do so as in the following configuration:

(323) S

NP VP

N V VP [+Strong]

V [-Strong]

John will go

This convention of incorporating features into configurational diagrams will be used occasionally—principally to clarify a given configuration. The fact that auxiliary (strong) and main verbs have the above restriction placed on them is not determined by the phrase structure rules. This is determined by a property called subcategorization. A complement must be subcatgegorized by its head. That is, the head of a phrase determines certain properties of its comple- ments:

(324) Weak Verb Subcategorization A weak verb cannot subcategorize a strong verb.

Rule specifically prohibits a main verb from taking an auxiliary verb in its com- plement as in:

(325) *John goes will.

For now, we will only consider constructions where the auxiliary verb subcategorizes a main verb as in (326) below. Another property that auxiliary verbs have is that the negative particle not may be added to its right. This particle may not be added to the right of a main verb:

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(326) a. John cannot go. b. Mary did not buy Bill’s 1938 LaSalle. c. I will not stay for dinner. d. Philosophy of language has not been an easy topic.

(327)a. *John went not. b. *Mary bought not Bill’s 1938 LaSalle. c. *I stay not for dinner.

Note that there are a few expressions where the negative particle may follow the main verb. These generally occur in the first person singular:

(328) a. I guess not. b. I suppose not. c. I hope not.

(329) a. I guess so. b. I suppose so. c. I hope so.

(330) a. ?He guesses not. b. ?You suppose not. c. ?They hope not.

Since the sentences in (328) and (329) appear to be fixed expressions in that they are limited to specific verbs in the first person singular, they are not considered counter-examples to the hypothesis that the negative particle may only follow aux- iliary verbs. However, it is argued that there is an ellipsis that follows not. The omitted string corresponds to the original :

(331)a. A: He isn’t going, is he? b. B: I guess not (that he isn’t going).

In B’s response to A, he is omitting the embedded clause except for the negative particle not. It is not clear at this time why these constructions are limited to the first person. They seem strange in the second and third persons. Later we will show that so is an affirmative particle that is substituted for VPs under certain conditions.

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(332)a. A: He’s going, isn’t he? b. B: I guess so (that he is going). A third property that auxiliaries have is that the negative particle may undergo contraction if it is adjoined to an auxiliary verb:

(333) a. John won't go. b. Mary didn't buy a fur coat. c. I shouldn't go.

Negation is formally introduced in section 3.3.

4.3.1 MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS In English there are four classes of auxiliaries. The preceding examples con- tained modal auxiliaries, except for do. Modal auxiliaries must come first, and mor- phologically they are deviant in that there is no ending ‘-(e)s’ in the third person singular. There are five normal modal auxiliaries: will, must, can, shall, and may. Each modal has another form with a different set of functions: would, must, could, should, might. These forms have special meanings and uses. We will not cover this here. Must has the same form in both functions. It belongs to an class which includes such verbs as hit and shut. These forms can be analyzed as having the ending ‘-t’, which when added to a verb stem which ends in /t/, yields /tt/, which undergoes degemination to /t/. In the following examples note that the clause con- taining the modals marking the second function would all occur in the past tense if they actually had occurred:

(334) a. John would have gone, had he known that. b. Mary should have bought the coat, but she didn't have the money. c. We could have studied syntax, but chose to take up basket weaving instead. d. Einstein might have found the Fifth Force, had he lived long enough. e. I must have really gotten drunk last night considering the hang over that I have.

Modal auxiliary verbs share a unique property of subcategorization: they can- not subcategorize one another, though they can subcategorize non-modal auxiliary verbs and they can subcategorize main verbs, but they cannot subcategorize other parts of speech:

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(335)a. John must go. b. Mary must be singing. c. Henry might have gone. d. The ballerina should have been sing. e. The letter could have been written f. *Bill must can go. g. *Elaine will may walk home. h. *Betty should may can operate a computer. i. *Kelly must a book. j. *The worker can his job.

A sample lexical entry of a is given for may:

Table 4:

Lexical Entry orthographic form may category V category features auxiliary, modal

subcategorization VPnon-modal

The subcategorization feature means that the modal can subcategorize any verb that is not a modal auxiliary.

4.3.2 NON-MODAL NON-COPULAR AUXILIARY VERBS The second class of auxiliaries includes have and be. They are used in forming the construction, the progressive aspect, and the passive :

(336) a. John has been here. (perfect) b. Has John been here?

(337) a. Albert was singing some ballads. (progressive) b. Was Albert singing some ballads?

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(338) a. Sally was seen in the new library annex. (passive) b. Was Sally seen in the new library annex?

Have marks the perfect construction in English, be marks the progressive aspect if the following verbal form has the suffix ‘ing’, and it marks the passive if the following verbal form has the appropriate suffix associated with the passive/perfect (-ed, -t, -d, -en, or -º). A problem arises in passive verbs (). Consider the following sen- tences formed with the feel:

(339) a. John felt the wind. b. *John felt. c. *John is feeling right not.

The verb feel is always transitive. The lexical for feel includes the following infor- mation:

Table 5:

Lexical Entry orthographic form feel category V subcategorization NP

Now consider the passive of (339a):

(340) The wind was felt by John.

The lexical entry for feel indicates that the verb requires a direct object (NP), but there is no NP complement in the passive form (340). Yet the passive construction (340) has the same logical meaning as the active one (339a). One solution to the problem adopted by many linguists is to assume that there is a gap following the verb. In transformational syntax this gap is called a trace. The gap is an empty NP:

(341) The wind was felt [NP e] by John.

The empty NP functions as a silent direct object which cannot be realized as a lexical item distinct from the subject. Furthermore, there is an obvious relationship or link between the subject and the gap as shown in the following figure:

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(342) ß (CP)

C S

NP VP

VP D N V [+Strong]

V NP PP [Strong]

P NP

N

e the wind was felte by John

(link}

This nature of this link is controversial. We leave the nature of the link for more advanced syntax.

4.3.3 THE SUPPORT AUXILIARY VERB The third class of auxiliary verbs has one member: do. Do is an auxiliary verb that has no meaning. It is a functional verb that is used in questions, negative sen- tences, emphatic sentences, and in elliptical constructions: It supports the inflectional ending which is adjoined to it:

(343)a. Does Albert write many letters per week? b. Einstein did not discover the Fifth Force. c. Amadeus did write a sonata. d. Ellen did so turn in her essay on auxiliary verbs. e. Jill rented a video and so did Polly.

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Do can subcategorize only main VPs as in (343); it cannot subcategorize other aux- iliary verbs:

(344)a. *Does Albert have written many letters per week? b. *Einstein did not be discovering the Fifth Force. c. *Amadeus did have written a sonata. d. *Ellen did so be turning in her essay on auxiliary verbs. e. *Jill has rented a video and so did have Polly.

The lexical entry for the auxiliary verb do is the following:

Table 6:

Lexical Entry orthographic from do category V category features auxiliary, support

subcategorization VPmain

The P-marker for (343c) is the following:

(345) ß (CP)

C S

NP VP

N V VP [+Strong]

V NP [-Strong]

D N

e Amadeus did write a sonata

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4.3.4 THE COPULAR VERB

The fourth class has one member: be. Here be functions as a copular verb. The function of copular verbs is to link the subject of the sentence to a predicate construction. The predicate modifies the subject:

(346)a. John is tall. b. Caruso was a great tenor. c. La Scala is in Milan.

The P-marker for (346a) is the following:

(347) ß (CP)

C S

NP VP

N V AP [+Strong]

A

e John is tall

Technically, the copular verb be does not subcategorize anything. The reason for this lies in advanced syntax and . The lexical entry for the copular verb be is the following:

Table 7:

Lexical Entry orthographic form be (am, is, are, was were) category V category features auxiliary,

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4.4 More on the Auxiliary Verb

More than one auxiliary verb may occur unconjoined in a string within a clause:

(348)a. John has been singing for an hour. b. Formal linguistics has been studied for several decades. c. Max had been being shaved for five minutes when Polly came rushing in with the news.

If rule (318b) is applied to (349):

(349) John has been singing a song., each auxiliary verb is the head of VP and takes another VP as its complement:

(350) S

NP VP

N V VP [+Strong]

V VP [+Strong]

V NP [-Strong]

Sally has been singing a song

The maximal structure obtained excluding modal auxiliary verbs is given in the analysis of the first part of (348c):

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Introduction to Configurational Syntax Section 4.4: More on the Auxiliary Verb

(351) S

NP VP

N V VP [+Strong]

V VP [+Strong]

V VP [+Strong]

V [-Strong]

Max has been being shaved

The evidence for the VP dominating a as a constituent is found in such constructions as:

(352)a. John has sung a song and so has Mary. b. Max was shaved yesterday and so was Jake. c. The birds are flying into the trees and so are a few bats. the conjoined sentence in each example the VP is omitted, providing more evidence for VP as a constituent—[sung a song], [was shaved yesterday], [flying into the trees], respectively. The highest auxiliary verb cannot be omitted:

(353)a. *John has sung a song and so Mary. b. *Max was shaved yesterday and so Jake. c. *The birds are flying into the trees and so a few bats.

In more complex it is unusual to omit internal VPs though some speakers insist that they can do so:

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(354) a. ?Max has been being shaved for five minutes and so has been Jake. b. ??Max has been being shaved for fine minutes and so has been being Jake.

Non-modal auxiliary verbs can occur in only one order in English—perfect, progressive, passive. In other words, the perfect may subcategorize the progressive, passive, or a main verb, but none of these verbs may subcategorize the perfect. The progressive may subcategorize the passive or a main verb, but neither may subcat- egorize a progressive. The passive may subcategorize only a main verb. That fact that some speakers seem to be able to omit the in the above example provides some evidence supporting rule (318b). We adopt it in this text. Auxiliary verbs subcategorize main verbs. Certain non-modal auxiliary verbs subcategorize other non-modal auxiliary verbs as the above examples show. Sub- categorization follows the following hierarchy:

(355) modal - perfect - progressive - passive - main verb.

A verb containing one of the features in (355) subcategorizes verbs with any of the features occurring to the right of the selected feature, but it does no subcategorize any verb with a feature occurring to the right of the selected feature in (355). For example, a progressive auxiliary verb subcategorizes a passive and a main verb, but it cannot subcategorize a modal or a perfect verb. No verb can subcategorize another verb containing the same features listed in (355). The hierarch in (355) pre- dicts that modal auxiliary verbs cannot subcategorize each other. Only one modal verb per clause is permitted. Each may subcategorize a main verb or any non-modal auxiliary verb. There is some reason to believe that the complement of a modal auxiliary verb is not a simple VP, but a tenseless clause:

(356) Irma must have been taking semantics for a long time.

In advanced syntax there is reason to assume that [have been taking semantics for a long time] is a clause with an invisible subject (written as PRO). We will defer this more complex analysis for a more advanced text. We will continue here to analyze the complement of an auxiliary verb as a VP:

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Introduction to Configurational Syntax Section 4.5: Embedded Sentences

(357) S

NP VP

N V VP +Strong +Modal V VP +Strong -Modal V VP +Strong -Modal V VP +Strong -Modal V [-Strong]

Maxmust have been being shaved

Note that main verb is not marked as [-Modal]. This is because all modal verbs are [+Strong] (auxiliary) verbs in English. The fact determines that the feature [-Modal] is redundant in main verbs, since it is always true. Only non-redundant features are overtly expressed unless otherwise noted.

4.5 Embedded Sentences

A sentence7 may occur as a complement of a cognitive verb. Such verbs in- clude know, think, believe, dream, and so on. Or it may occur as a complement of information revealing verbs such as say, tell, and so forth, or as the complements of verbs such as persuade, convince, and so on:

7. The terms clause and sentence are used interchangeably by syntacticians. In traditional gram- mar embedded sentences are often called subordinate or dependent clauses.

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(358)a. Mary knows that John hates syntax. b. Isaac believed that apples fall for some reason. c. Albert dreamt that the world is flat. d. Some people think that all mortals are fools. e. Basil said that the square root of minus one is ‘≠’. f. Marsha persuaded Bill that tetrahedrons are mystical.

Each sentence is a complete sentence in its own right. It merely functions as a com- plement. Note that the word that introduces the embedded sentences also called clauses. This word is formally called a complementizer. In traditional grammar is often called a subordinate conjunction. However, its function is not like that of a conjunction. Its function is to introduce embedded sentences and mark certain moods. Here, it is marking the indicative mood. The indicative mood denotes the speaker’s view that the information in the sentence is factual (whether or not it is in reality). Embedded sentences are always dominated by some node. In (358) they are functioning as complements of the cognitive verbs. Opposed to embedded sentences is the matrix S. A matrix S cannot be dominated by any node. The entire sentence (358a), for example, is a matrix sentence, but the string that John hates syntax is an embedded sentence (clause). Is the embedded S part of VP? One bit of evidence is found in substitution:

(359)a. John knows that syntax is fun. b. John knows something. c. John knows that syntax is fun and Mary knows it too.

The NP something occurs in place of the embedded S. If someone asked what does John know?, (359b) would be an appropriate answer. That something is part of the VP including knows does provide some evidence that the embedded S is a part of VP. Repositioning is also possible:

(360) John should know that syntax is fun, and know that syntax is actually fun he just might. Substitution provides some further evidence:

(361) Mary thinks that the world is shaped like a pear and so does John.

Obviously, what is substituted here is the VP that contains thinks and the embedded ß.

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The complementizer is optionally null (the empty category [ ]) in embedded sentences. Its absence does not change the meaning of the sentence. This fact is captured in the lexical expansion of the complementizer. There are two ways we can account for the null Complementizer. One way is to assume that the complementizer itself is optional:

(362) The Expansion of S [2] S ˘ (Comp) NP VP.

The difficulty with this solution is that there are other that cannot be omitted:

(363)a. John does know if it will rain tomorrow. b. *John doesn't know it will rain tomorrow.

(364)a. Mary insisted that John get a shave. b. *Mary insisted John get a shave.

Here, the deletion of the complementizer if changes the meaning of the sentence. The sentence has the same meaning as if the complementizer were that. The second solution is to assume that the omitted complementizer is a null variant of that. That is, the category complementizer is phonologically null:

(365) [comp e ]

The complementizer in the above Ss marks the indicative mood. The indicative mood indicates that the embedded sentence is realized or that it will be realized. The sub- jective mood, marked by if, does not indicate this. It marks condition or a statement that is contrary to fact:

(366)a. Vancouver will slide into the Strait if it does not quit raining. b. If John were six feet tall, he would ask Mary for a date. There is a second complementizer that which indicates a command or order. It marks the imperative mood, but it does not require a second person subject:

(367)a. John demanded that you be here at 8 a.m. tomorrow. b. Sally insisted that her brother be her guardian.

In most dialects of English, the imperative complementizer that cannot be omitted:

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(368)a. *John demanded you be here at 8 a.m. tomorrow. b. *Sally insisted her brother be her guardian.

The rule indicative [ind] complementizer may be expanded as that: or as ‘e’:

(369) The Indicative Complementizer [comp [indi] ] ˘ [comp [ind] that] or [comp [ind] e ] where ‘e’ indicates phonetically null. Since the node Comp is required, S now has the following expansion:

(370) The Expansion of S [3] S ˘ Comp NP VP.

S expands into VP, which may expand into S, which expands into VP, which may expand into S. This process of embedding may expand indefinitely This repetitive process is called recursion. We might expect the P-marker for

(371) John likes Mary. to be the following; the feature [ind] is included:8

(372) S

Comp NP VP [ind] NVNP

N

e John likes Mary

However, we shall show below that this structure is not acceptable. The indicative complementizer that cannot occur in matrix sentences in English (and the corresponding complementizer in many languages), but it is optional in embedded clauses:

8. Like other features, we will not always include features in phrase markers.

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Introduction to Configurational Syntax Section 4.5: Embedded Sentences

(373)a. Larry claims that Betty likes syntax. b. *That Larry claims that Betty likes syntax. c. Larry claims Betty likes syntax. d. *That Larry claim Betty likes syntax.

For example, in (373a) the constituent that Betty likes syntax is a sentential com- plement that expresses what Henry knows. The direct object often marks what is semantically called the Theme, or Proposition.9 A theme is, roughly, the central thing about which one is talking: the description of an object or an object in motion. A proposition is the semantic equivalent of a sentence. The complementizer is obligatory if the embedded sentence is preposed to the beginning of the matrix sentence as in the following passive construction:

(374)a. That Betty likes syntax is claimed by Larry. b. *Betty likes syntax is claimed by Larry.

There are other constructions where the complementizer cannot be phonetically null as in the following pseudo-cleft construction:

(375)a. What Larry claims is that Betty likes syntax. b. *What Larry claims is Betty likes syntax.

Basically, the null variant is obligatory in matrix clauses and is optional only when the embedded sentence immediately follows the verb which subcategorizes it. There is reason to propose that Comp is not part of S, but part of a structure which dominates S. There is evidence that there is such an internal structure within the string that we have thus far analyzed as being dominated by S:

(376) a. John thinks that Betty likes kumquats and her sister likes sour lemons. b. George Cactusflower told Congress that he likes quails and Ronnie likes drinking cabinet members.

In (376a) the string NP VP is repeated. It appears that this string, which we have called S, is conjoined. If we adopt the latter view, then there must a node which includes the complementizer and S. Following tradition, the node that dominates Comp and S is called ‘ß’.10 The expansion of ß is:

9. The term theme here is formally called a theta role, which are formally introduced in Chapter 5.

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(377) The Expansion of § ß ˘ Comp S.

Let us assume rule . The structure for:

(378) John likes Mary.

is now modified to include ß:

(379) ß

Comp S [ind] NP VP

NVNP

N

e John likes Mary

The original rule expanding S, rule [ , now holds. It is repeated as:

(380) The Expansion of S S ˘ NP VP.

The VP is revised to include embedded Ss:

(381) The Expansion of VP (revised) VP ˘ V (NP) (AP) (PP) (ß).

The P-marker for (382),

(382) John knows that syntax is fun.,

10. In advanced syntax and in some textbooks, ß is analyzed as ‘CP’, whose head is C (for com- plementizer.)

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(383) ß

Comp S

NP VP

N V ß

Comp S

NP VP

N V AP

A

e John knows that syntax is fun

In the following Ss, the string, ‘Columbus Ú round’, is a matrix ß, whereas the string, ‘(that) the world is round’, is an embedded ß:

(384)a. Columbus imagined that the world was round. b. Columbus imagined the world was round.

The lexical entries for the complementizer that and the null complementizer are the following:

Table 8: that

Lexical Entry orthographic form that category C

subcategorization Sembedded

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Table 9: null

Lexical Entry orthographic form (Null) category C subcategorization S

4.6 CP

In the past few years the node ß has been replaced with Complementizer Phrase (CP). In this view, the complementizer (C) is seen as the head of ß and S is its complement. Thus ß is renamed CP. Note that the expansion of CP now falls in line with the theory of the phrasal expansion, and in English the complement always follows the head:

(385) CP Expansion CP ˘ C S

This term has not been universally adopted in all the variations of configura- tional syntax that abound today. We will adopt CP here, noting that ‘ß many text and linguists continue to use ‘ß’. As we noted earlier the verb is arguably11 the head of S, but the argumentation for this is too complex to go into here.

4.7 Recursion

Recursion is one of the most powerful features of natural languages, and among the more interesting features. Recursion occurs when a higher node reoccurs as part of the expansion of a lower node. In the following example, the node VP is expanded to include ß as a complement of V:

(386)a. Henry knows that John likes Mary.

b. [ Henry knows [ that John likes Mary ]] ß ß

(387)a. Bill thinks that Henry knows that John likes Mary.

b. [ Bill thinks [ that Henry knows [ that John likes Mary ]]] ß ß ß

11. In a deeper analysis tense could be argued to be the head of S.

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(388) a. Julius believes that Bill thinks that Henry knows that John likes Mary.

b. [ Julius believes [ that Bill thinks [ Henry knows [ that John ß ß ß ß likes Mary ]]]].

The class of verbs in (386) to (388) includes conceptual verbs in that they represent thoughts, ideas, and other mental processes, and their complements are sentential in nature. Because of recursion, theoretically, sentences are indefinitely long. That is, one can keep repeating the process of recursion with no particular end:

(389) John knows that Bill knows that Mary knows that Sally knows that Carl knows that Ú

Of course, sentences beyond a certain length are difficult to produce. This is a matter of performance, not of competence. A speaker knows he can embed a sen- tence repeatedly, but at some point physical factors will prevent him from producing an indefinitely long sentence such as his mood, how tired he is, alcohol, drugs, memory, and death of the speaker. Performance factors vary from speaker to speaker. We may illustrate recursion in the following way. Suppose that the string ‘A B’ is a sentence. Now let us embed the sentence ‘A B’ within the original string:

(390) A [ A B ] B.

Now let us embed ‘A B’ within ‘A B’ once again:

(391) A [ A [ A B ] B ] B.

And let us repeat this process one more time:

(392) A [ A [ A [ A B ] B ] B ] B.

The process can be repeated over and over again without end. The string becomes indefinitely long, though at any stage it always has finite length. This is recursion. In natural languages replace A with NP and B with VP:

(393) NP [ NP [ NP [ NP VP ] VP ] VP ] VP.

Each sequence of NP VP within the same brackets defines a sentence:

(394) [S NP [S NP [S NP [S NP VP ] VP ] VP ] VP ]

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Other kinds of recursion are possible and do occur in natural languages. They all follow this same principle. Because of recursion, there are an indefinite number of possible Ss in a natural language. Each level of embedding is equivalent to a new sentence. Of course, no one has heard or used an infinite number of sentences for the reasons mentioned above. It should be obvious that many sentences one utters or hears are novel sentences—ones that have neither been heard or spoken before. Without a set of rules governing the structure of the sentence, such novel sentences would be incomprehensible, and uttering novel sentences would be impossible. Although an indifinte number of sentences is possible, there is a point where longer sentences become incomprehensible. This is a performance factor that is dependent on memory and other performance factors mentioned in chapter 1. The P-marker for

(395) Carl knows that John thinks that Bill likes Mary. is given in (396):12

12. There is another example of recursion that occurs. Later the NP will be expanded to include an optional PP, and the PP is expanded to include an NP, which in turn expands to include an optional PP: i. the shade of the color of the top of the table in the kitchen Ú There are more semantic restrictions in recursive expansions of this sort than there are in the expansion of ß. It is, therefore, difficult to find a relatively long recursion of this type.

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(396) ß

Comp S

NP VP

N V ß

Comp S

NP VP

N Vß

Comp S

NP VP

N VNP

N

e Carl knowsthat John thinks that Bill likes Mary

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